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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)
OIL & GAS: Arizona residents push back on a proposed 98 MW natural gas peaker plant in the western part of the state, saying it would harm air quality and property values. (Arizona Republic)
ALSO: California regulators reject advocates’ proposal to tighten gas flaring regulations at petroleum refineries and to livestream the burnoffs. (E&E News, subscription)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
UTILITIES: A Hawaii lawyer alleges a termite-damaged utility pole sparked last year’s deadly Maui wildfires after it was toppled by high winds. (Honolulu Civil Beat)
CARBON CAPTURE:
BIOFUELS: Oregon advocates push back on a proposal to store biofuels instead of crude oil at a Portland facility, saying the conversion won’t reduce air pollution or safety risks. (Oregonian)
SOLAR: California grid operators predict today’s solar eclipse will diminish solar power output in the state for a short period, but say utility customers will not be affected. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
HYDROPOWER: Hawaii advocates drop a lawsuit seeking to block a proposed hydropower project over potential environmental impacts after developers scale back plans. (Honolulu Civil Beat)
CLEAN ENERGY: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says policy decisions have put her state at the “epicenter” of the clean energy transition. (NM Political Report)
WIND:
GRID: An unusually severe wind storm raises wildfire hazard and batters utility equipment in Colorado, leaving more than 150,000 customers without power. (Boulder Reporting Lab)
COMMENTARY: A Utah editorial board says the state’s misguided fossil fuel-friendly policies paved the way for a utility to keep burning coal at the expense of ratepayers and air quality. (Salt Lake Tribune)
CLIMATE: NOAA released a report Friday showing levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere reached historic highs last year, with one scientist saying the methane spike in particular “should terrify us.” (Associated Press)
CLEAN ENERGY:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSPORTATION:
SOLAR: Solar generated more electricity than coal in Texas for the first time last month, providing more than 10% of the state’s electricity. (IEEFA)
WIND: Wyoming researchers paint turbine blades black in an experimental effort aimed at reducing bird collisions with wind power facilities. (Wyoming Public Radio)
NUCLEAR: A Department of Energy official says despite Plant Vogtle’s delays and cost overruns, the lessons learned from the project could help propel nuclear energy forward. (Grist)
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)
MINING: Efforts to develop a lithium mining site in Nevada face a major obstacle: Finding enough water. (Inside Climate News)
COMMENTARY: A climate journalist finds that traveling by train — at least, on America’s outdated diesel-powered ones — can in some cases be worse for the climate than flying. (New York Times)
POLICY: Connecticut lawmakers consider a 20-part climate omnibus bill in the last month of their session that would declare a climate crisis so it can access federal funds, update emission targets and incentivize sustainable or energy-efficient practices. (Connecticut Public Radio)
ALSO: Two top Northeast energy executives express optimism but nonetheless question if Massachusetts can reach its 2030 cleaner power goals. (GBH)
GRID:
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSIT: The judge hearing New Jersey’s legal challenge to a federal environmental assessment of the Manhattan congestion pricing plan — which could be resolved by June — questions where the National Environmental Policy Act supports New Jersey’s argument. (Streetsblog, Gothamist)
MINES: The owner of Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Mine idled operations last week due to heightened underground methane gas levels, not because it plans to close the mine, despite union claims that language in a company statement indicates that direction. (Herald-Standard)
BUILDINGS:
FINANCE: The Efficiency Maine Green Bank is set to receive $15 million in federal funds for loans supporting clean energy and renewable tech improvements. (news release)
SOLAR: A Maine town will decide this weekend whether to approve a new solar ordinance with a new definition of where solar farms can be located, as well as visual and physical buffering restrictions. (Sun Journal)
COMMENTARY:
COAL: Wisconsin utilities are in the process of determining what’s next for the sites of the state’s large coal plants as just a few will still be producing power in the coming years. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
GEOTHERMAL: Minnesota lawmakers introduce legislation to support the development of networked geothermal systems, a technology that is already taking off in the state to reduce buildings’ emissions. (Energy News Network)
POWER PLANTS: Local officials in northern Wisconsin decline to set public hearings for a proposed 625 MW gas plant near Lake Superior, delaying the project that has divided local opponents and labor groups. (Forum News Service)
CLIMATE: A Chicago neighborhood group pushes for more affordable housing development near transit stops, an approach leaders say combats both climate change and gentrification. (Grist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OHIO: A federal judge denies a request to move former Public Utilities Commission Chairperson Sam Randazzo’s corruption trial to Columbus from Cincinnati, where it is likely to start this summer. (Statehouse News Bureau)
SOLAR: Energy experts broadly expect natural gas to replace most of the solar output, which could top 40 GWh total, lost during Monday’s eclipse. (Utility Dive)
OIL & GAS: Officials believe oil leaking from containers on private property and into a storm drainage system caused a spill into a river in Flint, Michigan. (WJRT)
COMMENTARY:
Ohio ratepayer advocates say proposed state legislation would “rein in utility greed,” reduce shutoffs and prioritize customers in the wake of a historic utility bribery scandal. (Columbus Dispatch)
CLIMATE: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pauses implementation of its rule requiring companies to disclose their climate-related risks, though it’ll keep defending the regulation from legal challenges. (The Hill)
ALSO:
SOLAR:
EFFICIENCY:
OIL & GAS:
COAL: The U.S. Interior Department moves to reverse a Trump administration policy, making it easier for coal communities to bring environmental claims about mining companies to the federal government. (E&E News)
WIND: Texas’ wind energy industry is having to develop its own workforce recruitment and training programs as political backing for wind wanes and state lawmakers focus instead on propping up the oil and gas industry. (Texas Tribune)
GEOTHERMAL: Minnesota lawmakers introduce legislation to support the development of networked geothermal systems, a technology that is already taking off in the state to reduce buildings’ emissions. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Minnesota logistics company is piloting a program to determine whether electric semi-trucks can be a viable alternative to diesel-powered trucks. (WCCO)
NUCLEAR: The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn’t adequately account for climate risks in its reactor licensing and oversight processes, a government watchdog finds. (Utility Dive)
COMMENTARY: Legal and energy scholars write that the biggest threat to U.S. grid reliability is not a growing portfolio of renewable energy, but rather an outdated and parochial oversight system. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California researchers find electric vehicle adoption in the Bay Area has led to a 2.6% annual decrease in automobile emissions. (Courthouse News)
ALSO:
TRANSPORTATION:
OIL & GAS:
WIND: Developers bring a 152 MW wind power facility online in southeastern Idaho. (Renewables Now)
SOLAR: The Biden administration awards $19 million to projects in California, Oregon and Utah to help install solar panels over irrigation canals. (Courthouse News)
HYDROPOWER: Northwest officials predict low winter and spring precipitation levels will diminish this summer’s hydropower output from the region. (S&P Global)
CLIMATE: A Colorado ski area says it has reached its goal of operating on a net-zero carbon footprint a year ahead of schedule. (KDVR)
GRID: The Bonneville Power Administration’s staff recommends the agency join the Southwest Power Pool’s day-ahead power market rather than the California grid operator’s. (RTO Insider, subscription)
COAL:
NUCLEAR: A federal study predicts that converting a coal plant to an advanced nuclear reactor would add about 30 to 100 full-time jobs, a figure in line with projections for a Wyoming conversion. (Utility Dive)
This article originally appeared on Planet Detroit
While being a stay-at-home mom, Deana Neely had an idea. She began researching federal contracts and saw that Black women-owned businesses could win contracts and subcontract to other firms.
She also noticed that properties were being purchased all over Detroit. She felt that Black Detroiters needed a bigger stake in the contract work being performed amid the city’s development boom.
So Neely studied to get her electrical contractor’s license and founded Detroit Voltage, a Detroit-based Black-owned company that provides electrical contracting services for residential, commercial and government projects.
“It took me months. But after I got that first contract, my phone literally never stopped ringing,” Neely said. “Within my first six months of operating, we generated over six figures in revenue [and] became like the go-to electrical contractor in the city.”
Initially, Neely said she was not forthcoming about being a Black woman-owned business.
“It is very much so a white male-dominated industry, and I didn’t want anyone to know that I owned the company. And so everything about it looked like a white male owned it,” Neely said.
But, when she participated in a Google small business accelerator, the leaders of Google’s program encouraged her to bring her face to the forefront, a move that paid dividends later.
The U.S. construction industry remains largely white and male-dominated. Only 10.6% of construction managers in the U.S. are women, and only 4.8% are Black, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of January 2024.
Despite the sector’s homogeneity, Neely is inspiring other people of color to enter the skilled trades with a focus on sustainability.
Today, Detroit Voltage is installing electric vehicle charging stations for DTE Energy in Detroit. And she’s also helping others enter the field.
In the Spring of 2022, Elevate, a national nonprofit based in Chicago, tapped Neely to help shape the Detroit Clean Energy Contractor Accelerator Program. The program trains contractors from underrepresented backgrounds to bring their businesses into the clean energy economy. The following year, Neely participated in the program’s first Detroit cohort.
“What we’re trying to do is build up a network of contractors that are located in Detroit,,” said Tim Skrotzki, Associate Director of partnerships at Elevate. “We want these contractors to look like and be from the community we’re working in. With Detroit being predominantly Black, 78%, we want contractors to reflect that.” Editor’s note: Skrotzki is an Advisory Council member for Planet Detroit
Beyond training workers in the space, the nonprofit seeks to get general contractors to understand clean energy technologies so that they can oversee such projects, he added.
Neely said the clean energy accelerator program has helped build a connected local ecosystem for contractors like her.
“It also opened our eyes to partnering to get the work done. So if we didn’t have the capacity to do it directly, we can work within the group to make it happen,” she said.
Detroit Voltage was contracted to install EV charging stations across the city on behalf of DTE Energy. Neely said that the two began working together last April, and Detroit Voltage had installed about 100 EV charging stations on behalf of DTE. Neely first connected with the utility giant through its Bright Ideas for Neighborhoods Business pitch competition, during which small local businesses compete for a cash prize. Neely won $5,000 at the competition.
Detroit Voltage was installing EV chargers prior to participating in Elevate’s accelerator, but the program introduced Neely to other possible services beyond EVs. For example, Neely said she plans to implement battery backup preventative maintenance sometime in the near future, such as inspections, testing, and upkeep of battery backup systems.
“We have a very positive working relationship with Detroit Voltage. They are a DTE-certified electrician who takes part in our Home EV Charger Installation program,” Ryan R. Lowry, spokesperson for DTE told Planet Detroit.
Before launching Detroit Voltage in April 2016, Neely spent more than a decade working for the Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department. There, she met her now ex-husband and went on to have two children.
Similarly, Neely said she has tried to spread the word to young people in youth and professional organizations about opportunities in the industry.
“Everywhere you go there’s construction happening, ” Neely said. “Once you have this skill, you can go anywhere in the world and thrive with just the skill alone.”
Minnesota is home to a growing number of networked geothermal systems — essentially massive ground-source heat pumps providing low-emissions heating and cooling to a group of buildings.
Now, state legislators have introduced bills that aim to support further adoption of the technology, which advocates say is a key tool for cutting emissions in the building sector, especially in cold-weather states.
The legislation builds on what’s already happening in the state. Thermal energy networks have been installed in Rochester’s city hall and will be extended to a library and civic center to create a system serving more than one million square feet. Carleton College built a networked geothermal system and The Heights, a development on St. Paul’s East Side where more than 1,000 people will live and another 1,000 will work, will be heated and cooled by a networked thermal system.
“There’s a lot of excitement building around networked geothermal,” said Luke Gaalswyk, president and CEO of St. Paul-based Ever-Green Energy, a utility system operator and advisor with an expertise in district energy.
The state’s two major gas utilities, Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy, included networked geothermal pilots in plans submitted under the Natural Gas Innovation Act to the Public Utilities Commission. At least one legislative initiative calls for devoting 15% of the Innovation Act budget to networked geothermal. The federal government has several initiatives underway, too.
Joe Dammel, managing director for buildings at policy nonprofit Fresh Energy, said the state’s goal of becoming net zero by 2050 means shifting away from natural gas for heating.
“We think that there’s tremendous potential from network geothermal,” he said. “The studies being considered and the number of bills at the Legislature right now are only going to help us understand the technical and economic potential of geothermal.”
Fresh Energy also publishes the Energy News Network.
The proposed laws encourage geothermal in a variety of ways. One (HF 4759/SF 4849) offers planning grants to cities, counties and planning agencies to examine the feasibility of geothermal systems. A second (HF 4689/SF 4686) creates rebates related to geothermal. A third (HF 4688/SF 4687) requires the Public Utilities Commission to set up a workgroup. A fourth (HF 4423 / SF 4760) builds a framework for thermal energy network pilots and instructs the Commerce Department to study the potential for geothermal networks in Minnesota.
State Rep. Larry Kraft, a co-author on several of the bills, said buildings in Minnesota represent around 40% of carbon emissions and more than 60% in his suburban community of St. Louis Park. He believes municipalities that receive grants for geothermal and build systems will demonstrate, by example, the technology’s ability to decarbonize heating.
Kraft said ground-source systems, while expensive, are more efficient at heating than air source heat pumps. New developments may be easier to build with geothermal energy, or when streets are being reconstructed, neighborhoods could be retrofitted for it.
He imagines utilities that distribute natural gas will move to operating geothermal networks someday.
“How we decarbonize heating is going to be a big challenge for us here in a cold climate, but geothermal has great potential,” Kraft said.
Geothermal of any sort, however, remains expensive because the most common application, ground-source systems, requires drilling hundreds of boreholes and installing significant amounts of piping. There aren’t many contractors who can do this job, and financing institutions have little familiarity with it. Utilities may remain skittish because it threatens the natural gas business model.
Advocates believe more adoption will drop costs, create a robust contractor pool and enable more financing. Minnesota’s new Climate Innovation Finance Authority appears poised to be a potential financing source, having just provided $4.7 million for planning a networked geothermal for The Heights development in St. Paul.
Networked geothermal systems serve several buildings or homes with centralized heat or cooling using the same principle as district energy systems. A central heating and cooling source — typically borefields or aquifers — to serve many buildings while employing economies of scale to decrease costs through shared infrastructure.
Trade unions view networked geothermal as increasing employment opportunities for pipefitters and other contractors. Gas utilities could potentially transition toward geothermal as fossil fuel demand diminishes, Dammel said.
Clean energy advocates meanwhile like geothermal’s efficiency and ability to operate on electricity for heating instead of natural gas or propane. Lawmakers see thermal systems as providing a path to meeting the state’s goal of being net zero by 2050, Kraft added.
The Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes thermal networks by offering tax credits and direct reimbursements to government agencies and nonprofits.
“The [IRA] is contributing to an explosion in interest and adoption of geothermal,” said Ryan Dougherty, president of the Geothermal Exchange Organization.
Schools and other nonprofits can now receive 30% to 50% of the installed cost of a geothermal system, Doughtery said. The surge in commercial and institutional installations has grown so significantly that the industry has begun to face a labor shortage.
For the electric grid, networked thermal systems could bring relief because they use substantially less electricity than competitive solutions. Ground source heat pumps operate more efficiently than air source heat pumps, which now outsell fossil gas furnaces. And although ground source heat pumps use electricity, they consume less energy than heating alternatives, Gaalswyk said.
Such systems could even tap sources such as waste heat from wastewater facilities or data centers to warm buildings, he said. Another benefit is the ability to shift heat on a sunny day from a south-facing building, for example, to a north-facing one needing it.
Audrey Schulman, co-founder and co-executive director of the nonprofit climate solutions incubator HEET, said utilities with networked geothermal can begin heating water a week before an expected cold snap to avoid stressing the system — for instance, taking advantage of excess electricity from wind farms.
“There’s a lot of different options available,” Schulman said.
Massachusetts has required utilities to direct a growing percentage of funding allotted for replacing natural gas piping to networked geothermal, Schulman said. The fastest way to move away from natural gas and toward geothermal, she argues, will be by maintaining the financial health of natural gas utilities.
Utilities would socialize the cost of the capital expenditures to networked geothermal and then potentially pay it off by charging customers for the operations and maintenance, depending on the size of their homes or businesses.
“No one’s quite figured out how the charges will be structured,” she said.
Dammel said natural gas utilities have a long history of innovation and changing their business models. Initially, they provided natural gas for streetlighting before transitioning to a delivery service for natural gas.
“We certainly see that gas utilities could play a significant role in providing heat to customers and maintaining that longstanding customer relationship gas utilities have with their customers,” Dammel said.
Dammel and Schulman say regulators, utilities and others will face inevitable challenges in moving thermal systems into the mainstream. One is getting utilities onboard. Schulman said one Massachusetts utility, Eversource, fully embraces networked geothermal as the future, while others have taken a wait-and-see approach.
Dammel said utilities and clients must learn through pilots the upfront costs of the systems and how they could save money over time. Helping state residents and lawmakers understand the potential for networked geothermal and how it could benefit communities will be another task, he said.
Developing a geothermal workforce remains critical to growth. Minnesota has existing tradespeople capable of building geothermal systems, but the potential to create a much bigger workforce remains, Dammel said.
“There’s a huge opportunity,” he said, not only for installers but for companies developing new geothermal technology, financing, design and other aspects of the business.
Schulman agrees. Contractors drilling boreholes for geothermal in Massachusetts have become “overtaxed” with all the projects underway. The adoption speed will increase once regulators, utilities, and customers see the advantages.
“I can’t imagine any reason a customer would not want lower heating and cooling bills,” she said.
Legislative committees have heard several of the geothermal bills. Minnesota’s legislative session ends May 20.
CLEAN ENERGY: Wind and solar are booming in Texas, with the state ranking first in the U.S. for wind energy and just behind California for solar, and renewables now accounting for a third of all power produced in the state. (Axios)
ALSO: A new report finds nine clean energy projects announced in North Carolina between 2022 and 2023 will add $10.2 billion to the state’s gross state product during construction and $593.5 million annually while they’re operating. (Raleigh News & Observer)
CLIMATE:
COAL:
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
GRID: A Texas appeals court allows lawsuits against transmission and distribution utilities related to the 2021 winter storm and widespread outages. (The Hill)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration is largely looking to gas stations to install electric vehicle chargers, boosting companies that have long been some of the biggest sellers of fossil fuels. (E&E News)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Residents of a historic Black community in Alabama see an opportunity to restrict a polluting asphalt plant when its air permit comes up for renewal with state regulators. (Inside Climate News)
PIPELINES: Protesters gather outside the offices of Virginia’s environmental regulatory agency to call for greater enforcement of erosion rules against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (WHSV)
COMMENTARY:
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