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When you hear “geothermal,” what comes to mind?
Maybe it’s bubbling hot springs in Yellowstone, or that one volcano in Iceland that won’t stop erupting. (It still is, I checked).
Either way, it’s probably a massive field of heat and steam that you’d rather observe from afar, and not something you’d want in your backyard or the alleyway next to your apartment.
But a new generation of heat pumps are taking advantage of the Earth’s heat to both warm and cool big buildings and whole neighborhoods, no volcanoes required. Ground-source heat pumps work similarly to electric air-source heat pumps, which transfer heat in and out of a room to warm or cool it without need for fossil fuels, but find a more powerful and reliable source of heat in the Earth.
And they’re already taking off. Minnesota is piloting networked geothermal systems to keep government buildings, housing developments and schools warm through the winter and cool in the summer. A Chicago neighborhood wants to connect more than 100 homes to a networked system, squeezing boreholes in the alleys between buildings. And a Massachusetts gas utility has already unveiled networked geothermal in a Boston-area neighborhood, and is looking to repurpose existing infrastructure for future projects.
Despite their potential to slash emissions and low operating costs, for now, geothermal heat-pump systems remain too expensive for most homeowners and to install. But they’ve still got potential as a way to repurpose oil and gas drilling equipment and infrastructure, and could help pave a new, zero-emission path forward for the fossil fuel industry.
— Kathryn Krawczyk
🚗 EVs go farther: While the average electric vehicle today gets the equivalent of 106 miles per gallon, new technology could double that number to more than 200 in the coming decades, a report suggests. (Washington Post)
🏭 Questioning a gas buildout: Utilities across the Southeast want to build new natural gas-fired power plants to meet escalating power demand, even though advocates say clean energy and battery storage can handle the job. (Canary Media)
🔌Grid waitlist grows: About 2.6 TW of power projects — 95% of them solar, battery and wind developments — were waiting to connect to the U.S. grid at the end of last year, up 27% from the year before. (Utility Dive)
🍳 Electrification’s still simmering: Clean energy advocates and professional cooks continue to work to electrify restaurant kitchens and homes in Berkeley, California, even after a court shot down the city’s natural gas-hookup ban. (Guardian)
💵 Cleaner for cheaper: The U.S. Interior Department finalizes a rule that will cut fees as much as 80% for solar and wind projects on federal land as it celebrates a milestone of permitting more than 25 GW of renewable projects under President Biden. (The Hill, Reuters)
📄 Getting clean energy to tribes: An Indigenous researcher says tribes need application support, better access to information, and resources to build better infrastructure, in addition to funding to adopt clean energy. (Grist)
📦 Prime charging: Amazon has installed more than 17,000 electric vehicle chargers at its warehouses over the last two years, making it the biggest U.S. private charging operator as it easily surpasses competitors’ clean vehicle goals. (Bloomberg)
🧩 Steel the deal: Experts discuss the pitfalls and potential for green hydrogen to clean up the emissions-heavy steelmaking industry. (Canary Media)
SOLAR: Critics charge that Duke Energy’s revised green tariff program in North Carolina will do little to accelerate new renewable development because it requires large customers to choose from projects among losing bids in the utility’s solar procurement process. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Construction has stalled on Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast’s planned North Carolina factory after the company revised its plans for a smaller building footprint but hasn’t yet submitted new documents to the state. (Raleigh News & Observer, WRAL)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Republican attorneys general from Florida and 22 other states petition the U.S. EPA to stop taking race into account when regulating pollution. (Floodlight)
GRID:
UTILITIES:
COAL: Democratic U.S. senators in Virginia and West Virginia applaud a new federal rule to more tightly regulate silica dust, which factors into black lung disease. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)
EMISSIONS:
CLIMATE: Advocates and families of people incarcerated in Louisiana prisons say the state has failed to protect prisoners from extreme summer heat, while officials say they’ve asked for state funding to install air conditioning in two prisons. (Verite News)
NUCLEAR: Virginia lawmakers approve Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s changes to a bill that allows utilities to seek regulatory approval to charge customers for the cost of developing small modular nuclear reactors. (Cardinal News)
TRANSMISSION: A Colorado think tank finds Western states are poised to generate billions of dollars by exporting clean energy to other regions, but only if they can significantly expand the power grid. (Inside Climate News)
MINING: Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren proposes requiring mining companies to notify the tribe and post a bond prior to transporting uranium across tribal land. (Fronteras)
OIL & GAS: Colorado lawmakers advance legislation that would limit the length of trains passing through the state as a way to reduce the risk of spilling crude oil or other hazardous materials. (Colorado Sun)
CLIMATE:
TRANSITION:
SOLAR:
STORAGE: A California community choice aggregator agrees to purchase 180 MW of power from a battery energy storage system under development in the San Francisco area. (Energy Storage News)
UTILITIES:
CARBON CAPTURE: Alaska lawmakers remove minimum payment requirements from a carbon capture bill, saying the legislation is aimed at encouraging fossil fuel development, not raising revenue. (Alaska Beacon)
BIOFUELS: The operator of a Colorado power plant fueled with beetle-killed trees closes the facility, saying it is not financially viable. (Vail Daily)
POLICY: Maryland environmentalists say they have a lot to celebrate after the state’s most recent legislative session, but also several setbacks, including failed bills to stop trash incineration subsidies and permitting changes to reduce further pollution in disadvantaged communities. (Bay Journal)
ALSO: Maryland’s chief sustainability officer says a budget amendment that delays building efficiency measures would put the state years behind on its climate goals and risk federal funding. (WBAL)
WIND:
HYDROPOWER:
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
RENEWABLE ENERGY:
BIOGAS: An anaerobic digester company based in the Boston suburbs aims to hire up to 100 more workers in the next year as it looks toward its goal of opening 100 waste-to-gas facilities. (Boston Business Journal)
BUILDINGS: Federal energy officials grant $158 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds to New York to help homeowners pay for energy efficiency upgrades. (NCPR)
UTILITIES: Although New York’s Assembly is considering a bill to fully municipalize the Long Island Power Authority, state senators have yet to introduce such legislation. (TBR News Media)
INCINERATION: A new documentary highlights the plight and resilience of residents of a suburban Philadelphia city burdened with air pollution from a trash incineration plant. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
SOLAR: Two large solar projects that have come online in South Dakota over the past year signal a new interest in solar for a state where wind energy has dominated renewable energy sources. (South Dakota News Watch)
ALSO: The Ohio Power Siting Board will hold a second public hearing on a large solar project after roughly 800 people packed a theater and public comments ran on for hours. (Knox Pages)
CARBON CAPTURE: The CEO of a multi-state carbon pipeline project maintains that it would be crucial for ethanol producers who could market low-carbon products. (NWestIowa.com)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID:
WIND: Three former Minnesota high school students have used their technical training in renewable energy to support the development of an offshore wind project in Massachusetts. (Echo Journal)
RENEWABLES: Wisconsin utilities tout voluntary, subscription-based green pricing programs as a way for customers to support renewable energy investments without onsite installations. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
UTILITIES: Consumer advocates and Indiana utility NIPSCO agree on a rate increase request that’s about 75% of what the utility sought to pay for gas infrastructure investments. (Chicago Tribune)
COMMENTARY: Some Minnesota environmental groups’ newfound opposition to a statewide low-carbon fuel standard raises questions about the future of the state’s ethanol industry, a columnist writes. (Star Tribune)
CLEAN ENERGY: New York’s governor proposes a new policy that would speed up clean energy project siting by requiring approval within a year of proposal — but some legislators say there needs to be more guardrails to protect labor and farmlands. (NY Focus)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OFFSHORE WIND:
GRID: A new joint venture intends to develop and manage 200 MWs of microgrid projects in New York. (news release)
BUILDINGS: Maryland environmental groups “feel betrayed” over a new budget amendment they say will hurt implementation of clean building provisions of a 2022 climate solutions act. (Maryland Matters)
SOLAR:
FLOODS: Heavy rain in southwest Pennsylvania this week rose river levels in Pittsburgh to the highest point in almost 20 years, flooding parks. (Trib Live)
WORKFORCE: A Massachusetts public high school will receive millions of dollars from the state to fund a clean energy education pilot project for students. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
CLEAN ENERGY: The vast majority of power on New England’s grid on March 30 — 82% — came from emissions-free energy resources, primarily wind and solar power, a feat considered unheard of just a decade ago. (Concord Monitor)
OFFSHORE WIND: Federal tax credits encourage wind project owners to repower their turbines and boost energy output, as is the case at the Twin Ridges Wind Farm near Pittsburgh. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
NUCLEAR: PSEG tells federal energy regulators it will file for license renewals in 2027 for two nuclear plants — a four-year extension for Salem’s units and a 20-year extension at Hope Creek. (World Nuclear News)
GRID:
SOLAR: A farm resort near Scranton, Pennsylvania, receives federal rural energy funds to install enough solar on a building’s roof to power 15 homes. (WVIA)
COAL: The Army Corps of Engineers says it should be able to open a limited-access channel by the end of the month to access Baltimore’s port, through which a notable chunk of the country’s coal exports pass. (BisNow)
UTILITIES:
BUILDINGS: As some municipalities fight Massachusetts’ transit-oriented development rezoning plan, officials debate how far to take the policy and where to draw the line. (CommonWealth Beacon)
EQUITY: New York City releases a new environmental equity report finding that almost half of city residents deal with “disproportionate” pollution burdens and symptoms of climate change. (The Guardian)
TRANSIT: Although New York City is implementing congestion pricing, it’s unlikely to happen soon in Washington, D.C., where the city’s mayor still refuses to release a 2019 city study on the matter. (Axios DC)
COMMENTARY:
SOLAR: Texas’ grid operator announces solar supplied more power to the grid in March than coal for the first time, marking an important milestone in the clean energy transition. (Houston Chronicle)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
PIPELINES: A Louisiana State University professor develops a method of fiber-optic leak detection that could supplement or replace pressure gauges as a way of rapidly detecting leaks in oil and gas pipelines. (Reveille)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSITION:
GRID:
EMISSIONS: Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin makes line-item changes to the state budget passed by Democrats that would mandate state participation in a regional carbon market. (Virginia Business)
UTILITIES:
COMMENTARY:
OFFSHORE WIND: Maine lawmakers reject a proposal from the governor to exempt offshore wind hub development on Sears Island from adhering to sand dune protections, obscuring the project’s path forward. (Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald)
ALSO:
SOLAR:
GRID:
STORAGE:
CARBON CAPTURE: In Pennsylvania, lawmakers advance a Republican bill establishing a regulatory framework for underground carbon dioxide-storage wells to support federally backed hydrogen hubs, but critics say it doesn’t include enough liability guarantees from involved companies. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nearly 200 electric vehicles were reportedly stalled overnight waiting for their turn at one rural Vermont charging station after the eclipse. (WCVB)
NUCLEAR: Wiscasset, Maine, officials say they’ll negotiate with the owners of the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant about how much revenue the town will receive after a state law closed a tax exemption for the facility. (Bangor Daily News)
TRANSIT: A district court judge will soon decide whether New York has to go back to the drawing board with its Manhattan congestion tolling plan or whether it doesn’t need an environmental impact statement. (NJ Advance Media)
UTILITIES: Pennsylvania utility regulators unanimously vote to investigate a 16% rate hike request from Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania. (Penn Live)
BUILDINGS: The Efficiency Maine Green Bank will use a $15 million federal grant to support energy loans and deploy heat pumps to small businesses, homes, schools and elsewhere. (Mainebiz)
WORKFORCE:
COMMENTARY: In Vermont, the Burlington Electric Department’s general manager and a conservation program manager write that the U.S. EPA’s new final rule for vehicle emissions is a win for the state and planet. (VT Digger)
HYDROGEN: Xcel Energy says plans for an Upper Midwest hydrogen hub are jeopardized by proposed federal tax credit rules that would bar utilities from diverting existing clean energy generation to power hydrogen facilities. (Star Tribune)
SOLAR: A proposed 600 MW solar project outside Lawrence, Kansas, highlights land use debates with utility-scale developments and concerns about removing prime farmland. (Flatland)
OHIO: Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted refuse to comment so far on the apparent suicide of former regulator Sam Randazzo, who previously had their support and was a key player in the state’s largest corruption scandal in history. (ABC 5)
CLIMATE: Experts say Chicago’s climate lawsuit against major oil companies is likely to be moved back to local courts ahead of a long legal dispute with deep-pocketed companies. (Chicago Sun-Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR: Federal regulators will hold a public information meeting next week in Michigan on an unprecedented plan to reopen a shuttered nuclear plant. (MLive)
COAL: A Congress member from Michigan co-sponsors legislation that backers say would close a loophole in federal law that allows coal companies to skirt mine remediation requirements when they file for bankruptcy. (E&E News, subscription)
UTILITIES: Ratepayers in northeastern Ohio are set for lower electricity bills this summer as FirstEnergy pays about 27% less for wholesale power at auction this year. (Cleveland.com)
COMMENTARY:
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