Virginia lets Dominion keep monopoly on offshore wind — for now

WIND: Virginia lawmakers delay until 2025 consideration of a bill to allow entities other than Dominion Energy to build offshore wind facilities, rewarding the utility’s intense lobbying against the bill and disappointing clean energy advocates. (Energy News Network)

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BIOMASS: Financially troubled biomass company Enviva, which operates wood pellet factories across the Southeast, reaches a critical point as its 30-day grace period to pay bond holders expires, likely requiring either a streamlining of its operations or a move toward bankruptcy. (Wilmington StarNews)

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SOLAR:

• Solar power jumps 46% in Texas from January 2023 to 2024 as the sector continues to break generation records and eclipses power produced by coal on the state grid. (Clean Technica)
• A deadline looms as West Virginia lawmakers have yet to act on legislation to require utilities to credit rooftop solar customers for surplus energy at the same rate at which they sell it. (Mountain State Spotlight)
• NextEra announces plans for a 150 MW solar farm in Kentucky. (Messenger)
• A Florida company is making solar panels for low Earth orbit satellites. (Military + Aerospace Electronic)
• Georgia lawmakers consider a bill to require solar companies to restore land to its natural state after their leases expire. (WGAU)

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NUCLEAR:

• The second of two new units at Georgia Power’s nuclear Plant Vogtle begins splitting atoms in a step toward completion of the long-delayed expansion. (WAGA)
• Virginia lawmakers consider two bills to allow Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy to pass the cost of unproven small modular nuclear reactors to ratepayers, regardless of whether the projects come to fruition. (Inside Climate News)

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PIPELINES: A lawyer for six Virginia landowners along the Mountain Valley Pipeline says they’ll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a judge dismisses their suit challenging the pipeline’s use of eminent domain to build on their property. (Cardinal News)

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OIL & GAS: At least six liquified natural gas projects are underway in Mexico but will rely mostly on gas shipped from the Permian Basin and other regions in the U.S., including from facilities currently under scrutiny by federal officials. (Canary Media)

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EMISSIONS:

• A Georgia industrial authority awards $130 million for expansion of paper mill facilities that are one of the region’s largest greenhouse gas emitters and the source of the area’s infamous sulfur smell. (Savannah Morning News)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority and university researchers release a study that quantifies carbon emissions by economic sector and evaluates strategies to reach net zero in parts of seven Southeast states. (news release)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Kentucky lawmakers advance a Republican-backed budget with a provision blocking state agencies from buying electric vehicles, even as Toyota and Ford invest billions in the state for EV production. (Kentucky Lantern)
• Mississippi currently ranks last in the U.S. for electric vehicle charging stations per capita, but is moving to add new chargers that will be in service by 2026 or 2027. (Mississippi Today)

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GRID: A Texas Congress member carries legislation to require the state’s standalone power grid to connect with the nation’s major grids. (KEYE)

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