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SOLAR: Officials with an energy company discuss their plans to begin construction in 2026 on an 800 MW solar farm in Kentucky atop a massive former coal mine, saying the project will provide equitable access to renewables and training for “future-proof energy jobs” as the coal industry declines. (Yale Climate Connections)
GRID:
PIPELINES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An Alabama community college receives a $2.4 million grant to expand a center to train workers how to install, test, operate and maintain electric vehicle chargers. (news release)
EMISSIONS:
HYDROPOWER: The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma council approves a resolution opposing an Oklahoma energy company’s proposed hydropower project. (news release)
POLITICS: The Democratic governors of Kentucky and North Carolina — both of whom have benefitted from electric vehicle investment linked to federal climate legislation — are among the top contenders to run for vice president with likely presidential candidate Kamala Harris. (E&E News)
COMMENTARY:
PERMITTING: After two years of talks, Independent Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. John Barrasso agree on a permitting reform bill that would pave the way for increased renewable energy and fossil fuel development. (The Hill)
ALSO: Advocates criticize the energy permitting legislation, saying it is a “giveaway to the fossil fuel industry.” (Common Dreams)
POLITICS:
NUCLEAR: A startup looks to build a series of identical next-generation nuclear reactors throughout the country, targeting 6 GW of deployment by the mid-2030s. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR:
COURTS: Baltimore officials say they plan to appeal a circuit court judge’s decision to dismiss their climate deception lawsuit against more than two dozen fossil fuel companies. (Daily Record)
UTILITIES:
EFFICIENCY: Homebuilders claim a Kansas City ordinance requiring certain energy efficiency standards is slowing construction in an already tight housing market, but advocates say the numbers they’re using are misleading. (The Beacon)
A recently signed New Hampshire law makes significant changes to the operations of the state’s Renewable Energy Fund, directing money to help towns and cities develop municipal solar projects and ending a residential solar rebate program that was generally viewed as deeply flawed.
“The previously existing program had sort of run its course,” said Joshua Elliott, director of policy and programs in the state energy department.
The Renewable Energy Fund, created in 2007, is a pool of money the state uses to support renewable and thermal energy initiatives through grants and rebates. It is funded by annual compliance payments made by electric service providers that failed to buy the legally mandated proportion of their power from renewable sources in the previous year.
The sum the fund collects can vary widely from year to year, ranging from as low as $1.3 million in 2009 to $19.1 million in 2011. More recently, revenue has hovered around $7 million.
This money is then allocated across several programs including those supporting solar hot water heating, low-and-moderate income community solar, and wood pellet boilers and furnaces for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
The new funding for municipal solar projects represents the next step for an approach just getting underway in the state.
Installing solar power can allow a municipality to both cut carbon emissions and realize significant savings on their energy bills. These savings can be used to cut property taxes or to provide additional support or services for residents. Until recently, however, there was little state or federal support for municipal solar. At the same time, getting a municipality to agree to the upfront costs has always been challenging.
“There’s a variety of competing factors for property tax revenue,” Elliott said. “It can be hard to get a warrant article passed to invest the money to purchase a solar array for town buildings.”
The state began tackling the problem this year with the Municipal Solar Grant Program, which is using a $1.6 million federal grant, part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to help cities and towns install solar arrays on municipal property. Lower-income communities that intend to retain complete ownership of their solar system will be eligible for grants up to $200,000; municipalities that don’t meet these criteria can request grants up to $120,000.
Though the program is just getting started — the application period is open until August 1 — the opportunity has already sparked wide interest from municipal governments. Community liaisons for the nonprofit Clean Energy New Hampshire have identified roughly 50 cities and towns likely to apply for a share of the limited funding.
“There’s been a huge response,” said Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire. “That shows this is a good space to be spending the money in.”
The new legislation calls for funding to be allocated to a new municipal solar program this year, with the sum likely to be announced in late August or early September. Then, before the money can be offered to cities and towns, the state will have to design a new system. The new incentive will be inspired and informed by the program now launching, Elliott said.
“We’re certainly going to take feedback, have stakeholder sessions,” he said. “And that will help refine what this program looks like.”
The bill also terminates the state’s rebate program for residential solar and wind installations, an incentive that was widely thought to be ineffective.
The program offered rebates of up to $1,000 to a limited number of households each year. In fiscal 2023, rebates totalling about $424,000 were issued.
The program used a lottery system to determine what order rebate applications would be processed in each year; applicants closer to the end of the list might not end up receiving any rebate if the funds ran out before they made it to the top of the list. That uncertainty meant the program was doing little to spur additional solar development, Evans-Brown said.
“It’s almost by definition not getting projects done: If you can’t know for sure if you’re getting rebate, it’s not factoring it into the purchasing decision,” he said. “When we asked residential solar installers if the rebate was helpful they said no.”
The program also accepted applications from any household with a solar array installed after 2012 that has not yet received a rebate, diminishing its impact on new solar development even further.
“You’re not actually helping to develop the solar market at that point,” Elliott said.
Though the recent law eliminates this rebate, lawmakers were clear during hearings on the bill that they want to see a replacement residential incentive developed. No plans are yet in the works for such a program, and it is unclear what the timeline would be for designing a new incentive from scratch, Elliott said. Furthermore, the law does not require a new program be enacted.
Elliott, however, has every intention of making sure a replacement program comes to be, he said.
“I made a commitment in public saying, ‘Yes, we are going to do this,’” he said, “and I certainly feel beholden to that.”
UTILITIES: A growing number of Georgia companies with climate goals are frustrated that less than half of Georgia Power’s electricity is carbon-free, and although the utility plans to build more solar, it’s still adding new gas turbines and delaying closure of its coal plants. (Grist/WABE)
ALSO:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR:
CLIMATE:
COAL ASH: A town less than two miles from the University of North Carolina looks to redevelop 10 acres of land containing 46,000 tons of toxic coal ash, but lawyers and community members warn its cleanup plan still won’t adequately protect the public from health risks. (Inside Climate News)
GRID: Houston Mayor John Whitmire promises to hold CenterPoint Energy “accountable” for widespread outages during Hurricane Beryl, but the mayor and city have little power to regulate the utility. (Houston Chronicle)
OVERSIGHT: Environmental lawyers say the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a policy giving federal agencies deference to interpret laws could affect Virginia’s regulation of vehicle emissions but probably not its enforcement of clean water rules. (Virginia Mercury)
POLITICS:
CLIMATE: The U.S. EPA awards Western states more than $1.27 billion for projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, utilities, buildings and industry. (Associated Press, Colorado Newsline)
ALSO: A study finds the urban heat island effect increases Tucson, Arizona’s temperature by nearly eight degrees over that of the surrounding, undeveloped desert. (Arizona Daily Star)
UTILITIES: Hawaiian Electric and other defendants reportedly agree to pay $4 billion to settle lawsuits over last year’s deadly Maui wildfires, but disagreements over distribution of the funds is delaying a final deal. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
WIND:
SOLAR:
ELECTRIFICATION:
GEOTHERMAL: The U.S. Army looks to heat an Alaska base with geothermal energy. (Task & Purpose)
HYDROGEN: Navajo Nation advocates push back against a proposed 200-mile hydrogen pipeline that would cross tribal land, saying existing regulations are inadequate to ensure safety or mitigate impacts. (Arizona Republic)
OIL & GAS:
COAL:
GRID: Unusually severe winds topple utility poles in eastern Idaho, leaving nearly 8,000 customers without power. (East Idaho News)
UTILITIES: As Duke Energy prepares to face North Carolina regulators and defend its plan to invest in 9 GW of natural gas plants and delay meeting an emissions reduction mandate, it makes small concessions in a proposed settlement and wins support from the state’s ratepayer advocate. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
COAL ASH: Environmental groups press the U.S. EPA to take control of Georgia’s coal ash program from state regulators because they’ve allowed utilities to keep unlined coal ash ponds where the waste is in contact with groundwater. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Recorder)
SOLAR: Texas saw a spike in the number of homes adding small-scale solar facilities even before Hurricane Beryl, which caused widespread outages that could encourage more state residents to add solar installations. (Inside Climate News)
GRID:
CLIMATE:
OVERSIGHT: Louisiana and Mississippi commissions sue federal regulators over an order that sets requirements for long-term electric grid planning, one of the first challenges to a federal agency since the U.S. Supreme Court opened up ambiguous agency decisions to legal challenges. (E&E News)
EMISSIONS: The U.S. EPA will evaluate air quality at two national parks in Texas as part of a settlement in a lawsuit by environmentalists. (Marfa Public Radio)
STORAGE: An energy company closes on financing for three standalone utility-scale battery energy storage projects in Texas that will be built near solar farms. (Utility Dive)
POLITICS: An official from Kentucky’s attorney general disputes the science behind climate change in testimony to state lawmakers, arguing against U.S. EPA rules that require coal- and new natural gas-burning power plants to capture 90% of carbon emissions. (Kentucky Lantern)
COMMENTARY: West Virginia should embrace wind, solar and electric vehicle industries to add clean energy-related jobs and attract new residents, writes a conservationist. (State Journal)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A natural gas-fired backup power plant for a New Jersey wastewater facility will move forward in a mostly BIPOC Newark community already burdened by pollution, but with strict controls on pollution and a requirement for a solar and storage system. (Associated Press)
ALSO: While a state official says the restrictions will “improve baseline conditions,” advocates remain skeptical and contrast the decision with the recent rejection of a NJ Transit gas plant opposed by primarily White residents. (NJ Spotlight)
WIND:
NUCLEAR: Massachusetts regulators deny a request from the company decommissioning the Pilgrim nuclear plant to dump treated wastewater into Cape Cod Bay. (WBUR)
NATURAL GAS: While acknowledging it’s likely a “freak incident,” officials in a Vermont town are rattled after a truck hauling natural gas catches fire, roughly a year after a similar incident in the same location. (WCAX)
BIOENERGY: As New York dairy farmers increasingly adopt biodigesters to turn farm waste into energy, environmental advocates warn the technology could have unintended consequences. (WSKG)
SOLAR:
BUILDINGS:
COMMENTARY:
POLITICS: Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for what supporters want to see from a Trump presidency, calls for dismantling U.S. EPA regulations, cutting program funding, and otherwise undoing much of the Biden administration’s climate and clean energy progress. (E&E News, Grist)
ALSO:
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
GRID: Louisiana and Mississippi commissions sue federal regulators over an order that sets requirements for long-term electric grid planning, one of the first challenges since the U.S. Supreme Court opened up ambiguous agency decisions to lawsuits. (E&E News)
UTILITIES: As Duke Energy prepares to face North Carolina regulators and defend its plan to invest in 9 GW of natural gas plants and delay meeting an emissions reduction mandate, it makes small concessions in a proposed settlement and wins support from the state’s ratepayer advocate. (Energy News Network)
SOLAR:
TRANSITION: In 2023, more than 90% of pipeline and refinery companies said in an industry survey that they had clean energy transition goals; today, that number has fallen to around three quarters. (The Hill)
ELECTRIFICATION: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to ban gas hookups in new homes and buildings is dead after a majority of city council members rejected the idea amid stiff union opposition. (Sun-Times)
LITHIUM: Mining lithium needed for batteries and clean energy components can use and potentially contaminate significant water supplies, a newly published study finds. (Inside Climate News)
SOLAR: Developers bring the 690 MW Gemini Solar + Energy Storage project online in southern Nevada, making it one of the nation’s largest operational facilities of its kind. (Power)
ALSO:
CLEAN ENERGY: Colorado economic development officials approve up to $1.84 million in tax incentives for a clean energy manufacturer considering establishing a facility in the state. (CPR)
STORAGE:
GRID: Distributed energy provider Sunrun says its virtual power plant composed of some 16,000 residential solar-plus-storage systems sent up to 51 MW to the California grid during a July heat wave. (news release)
MICROGRIDS: Colorado awards utilities more than $2.1 million to construct solar and battery storage powered microgrids. (Microgrid Knowledge)
OIL & GAS: The federal Bureau of Land Management proposes strengthening oil and gas drilling regulations on public land in Colorado to mitigate impacts to wildlife habitat. (news release)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California electric vehicle sales for the second quarter of 2024 drop 1.2% from the previous year, raising questions about whether the state can meet its goal of banning new gasoline-fueled car sales by 2035. (Los Angeles Times)
MINING: Advocates push back against a company’s plan to breed an endangered wildflower in a lab to offset its proposed Nevada lithium mine’s impacts to the plant, saying the firm is “greenwashing extinction.” (Associated Press)
NUCLEAR:
CARBON CAPTURE: Montana residents push back on an ExxonMobil subsidiary’s proposal to store 150 million tons of captured carbon in federal lands in the eastern part of the state, saying it would “change our way of life here forever.” (Inside Climate News)
The small southeastern Minnesota city of La Crescent receives just a handful of permit applications each year to install solar panels on homes.
Despite the small volume, it’s still important to city sustainability coordinator Jason Ludwigson that it’s a smooth process for homeowners and installers.
That’s why the city of 5,000 recently became one of the first in the state to start using a software program designed to streamline local solar permitting.
Solar Automated Permitting Plus, or SolarAPP+, was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with the solar industry, code organizations, local governments, and the building safety community. Since its release in 2018, SolarAPP+ has been used by more than 160 cities and counties to automate much of the permitting process for smaller solar installations.
In La Crescent, an application that might have taken a few days for a city employee to review can now be approved online in minutes for projects that meet criteria. That “will save (time) for both the contractor and the city,” Ludwigson said. “It makes it faster for our building and zoning department.”
Minnesota lawmakers want to encourage more communities to join La Crescent in adopting the software. This year, the Legislature budgeted $2 million for the Commerce Department to deliver programs and training to local agencies, contractors, inspectors and others involved in solar permitting.
The state’s solar industry association supports use of the software, in part for its potential to standardize a process that can right now vary significantly from city to city. Making it easier to permit installations could save companies time, potentially lowering costs and helping to expand rooftop solar in the state, which will need many megawatts more clean energy to reach its climate goals.
Getting permits for solar projects in Minnesota can take days or weeks and cost as much as $1,000. Typically, solar installers in the state apply electronically or in person for separate building, local electrical and utility interconnection permits. After receiving approvals for all three applications — and any other that are required — they start building projects that, once completed, are reviewed onsite by building and electrical inspectors.
Installers using the software receive automated approvals if they accurately complete forms for their building and electrical permits and, if required, fire and structural permits. Any errors are flagged and sent back to the installer for corrections. The app integrates with existing permitting software programs used by government agencies, according to NREL.
California cities have been the biggest adopters so far, but the app is beginning to catch on in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. By the end of 2023, the NREL reported that the free software had been used nationally on 32,800 projects, saving 33,000 hours of permitting staff time. Installers pay a $25 administrative fee and the community’s permitting fee.
State Rep. Patty Acomb, who chairs the Climate and Energy Finance and Policy committee, said she and other lawmakers want to provide state grants so cities can learn how to use the software and eventually create a consistent permitting process across the state. “The intention is to make (permitting) easy and predictable,” she said.
Lissa Pawlisch, director of the Energy Development Section at the state Department of Commerce, said the department is developing a program to reach out to communities interested in SolarAPP+ and assist them in incorporating it into existing permitting software. She also believes the app could play a role in helping move installations through the new federally funded Solar for All program that will serve low income households.
Great Plains Institute’s Brian Ross said that Solar for All requires a consistent approach to permitting, and that one way to achieve that is with the SolarApp+ software. The app would give a “jurisdictional consistency” to applications from low income solar customers and “to make sure there are not barriers in the way.”
Despite its promise the app will not work in every situation. It only incorporates local versions of electrical permits and not the state permit, which many communities use. “If the local government relies on the state permitting process (for instance, Minneapolis), then I don’t think there is any advantage to using SolarAPP because the state electric permitting process is already effectively an ‘automatic issue,'” he said.
Donna Pickard of TruNorth Solar has spent decades filing solar permits with dozens of municipalities. She said installers need building, electrical and interconnection permits and approvals before projects begin, often taking over a month.
Pickard wonders if SolarAPP+ will interest Minnesota communities because many already have established permitting systems to manage solar projects. However, having dealt with many different permitting structures, Pickard said she “likes the idea of standardization because it would make things easier.”
Another challenge is that the software can’t evaluate permits for projects on flat or metal roofs in the Midwest. Jeff Cook, solar analysis subprogram manager at the NREL Strategic Energy Analysis Center in Colorado, said the software covers about 80% of eligible solar installations but the number declines in the Midwest due to “high snow load and metal roof penetration.”
Pawlisch said outreach and grants for SolarApp+ would likely start next year. The start date is also unclear for Solar for All as she continues to meet with federal and state officials to work out the details.
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