Back
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The fledgling electric vehicle battery recycling industry suffered in 2024 amid falling material prices, delayed construction projects, and reduced expectations for what recycling can deliver. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS: An electrification advocacy group estimates replacing every American household’s fossil fuel furnaces, hot water heaters and clothes dryers with electric alternatives could deliver $40 billion in annual health benefits. (New York Times)
OFFSHORE WIND: An offshore wind company’s decision to put a planned wind farm on hold during the second Trump presidency is having ripple effects, endangering the development of a renewable energy hub in New York City. (Heatmap)
CARBON CAPTURE: The latest delays for a proposed North Dakota carbon capture project cap a year with few signs of progress for U.S. coal plant owners considering carbon capture retrofits. (Inside Climate News)
GRID:
OVERSIGHT: President-elect Trump’s promise to strengthen White House control over independent agencies could impact federal energy regulators’ nonpartisan oversight of gas and power markets. (E&E News)
OIL & GAS:
This article was originally posted by South Dakota Searchlight.
Massive data centers used for cloud computing and artificial intelligence are consuming enormous amounts of energy, and developers are eyeing South Dakota as a potential location, regulators say.
These “hyperscale data centers,” or “hyperscalers,” are designed to handle immense computing demands and are often operated by tech giants. The centers are characterized by their large size — often tens of thousands of square feet — and thousands of computer servers that require significant energy to operate.
Nick Phillips with Applied Digital in Texas, a developer of the centers, highlighted South Dakota’s appeal: a cold climate that cuts down on cooling a room full of hot servers, and abundant wind energy that’s considered one of the most cost-effective renewable energy sources, which can help keep operating costs down.
State regulators are not aware of any hyperscale data centers currently operating in South Dakota.
“There isn’t a requirement to report hyperscale data centers to the commission, so we don’t have a formal method to track that information,” said Leah Mohr with the Public Utilities Commission.
Commissioner Kristie Fiegen noted that the state’s largest proposed data center is a 50-megawatt facility in Leola.
“We don’t know what’s coming,” she said. “But the utilities are getting calls every week from people trying to see if they have the megawatts available.”
The commission recently hosted a meeting in Pierre with representatives from regional utilities, regional power grid associations and data centers. The goal was to understand the emerging demands and facilitate an information exchange.
Bob Sahr, a former public utilities commissioner and current CEO of East River Electric Cooperative in Madison, emphasized the scale of energy needed.
“We’re talking loads that eclipse some of the largest cities in South Dakota,” he said.
A single data center campus can require anywhere from 300 to 500 megawatts of electricity to operate. One megawatt can power hundreds of homes. By one estimate, there are over 1,000 hyperscalers worldwide, with the U.S. hosting just over half of them.
Ryan Long, president of Xcel Energy, headquartered in Minneapolis, illustrated the extreme nature of the demand.
“We now have, I would say, north of seven gigawatts of requests across the Xcel Energy footprint for data centers to locate in one of our eight states,” he said. “And I’ll be very frank that there’s no way that we’re going to be able to serve all of that in a reasonable amount of time.”
Protecting existing customers from potential costs or energy shortages is another shared concern. Utility representatives emphasized the need for coal and natural gas to maintain a reliable “base load” when renewable sources like wind and solar are unavailable. Arick Sears of Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy underscored the point, noting that costs for each data center should depend on how much energy it consumes.
“We need to ensure that large-scale energy users are paying their fair share,” he said.
Utilities also flagged the risk of “stranded costs,” referring to a data center ceasing operations, leaving a utility with added infrastructure to meet a demand that no longer exists. They said financial safeguards will need to be written into power agreements with hyperscalers.
Speed of deployment is another pressing issue. Representatives from Montana-Dakota Utilities, headquartered in North Dakota, and NorthWestern Energy, headquartered in Sioux Falls, noted that some facilities expect to be operational within months of making a deal, straining infrastructure, planning and resources.
Grid managers Brian Tulloh of Indiana-based Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Lanny Nickell of Arkansas-based Southwest Power Pool echoed those concerns. They warned that data center growth is outpacing the grid’s ability to meet demand and cautioned against decommissioning coal power plants too quickly. Setting aside how much it would cost to produce the required energy, Tulloh estimated that MISO needs $30 billion in electric transmission infrastructure to support the demand from hyperscalers.
“The grid wasn’t designed for that,” Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson told South Dakota Searchlight after the meeting.
Nelson was glad to hear the data centers will include backup generators, similar to hospitals, for power outages or when homes need prioritization. He said some even aim to have huge batteries to power the plant until the generators get going. They would consume massive amounts of diesel and natural gas until the outage is over.
Nelson said all of this makes modern nuclear energy facilities more attractive. He said few alternative “base load” options remain, and the public has little appetite for ramping up coal power.
NorthWestern Energy is exploring the possibility of constructing a small nuclear power plant in South Dakota, with an estimated cost of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion for a 320-megawatt facility. The plant would be the first in the state since a test facility near Sioux Falls in the 1960s.
The company is conducting a study, partially funded by the Department of Energy. Details about the study and potential plant sites remain confidential.
Additionally, South Dakota’s Legislature has shown interest in nuclear energy, passing a resolution for further study on the topic that led to the publication of an issue memorandum by the Legislative Research Council.
SOLAR: Cities in Michigan and Wisconsin are contracting with large utilities to provide solar power after encountering financial and logistical challenges with building rooftop solar installations. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
GRID:
OIL & GAS: Nearly all of the 600 public comments sent to Ohio regulators in response to proposals to open a state park and two wildlife preservation areas to hydraulic fracturing oppose the plans. (Cleveland.com)
COAL: The Sierra Club criticizes Wisconsin utilities’ plan to keep open a coal plant for three years longer than previously planned, saying that it delays the clean energy transition and exposes residents to more harmful pollutants. (Wisconsin Examiner)
TRANSPORTATION: A majority of the recipients of a new Minnesota electric bike tax rebate went to residents making more than $100,000 a year while less than 40% of the rebates went to low-income residents. (Minnesota Reformer)
BATTERIES: A developer breaks ground on a $110 million mixed-use housing and hotel project that would connect to a nearby $7.5 billion central Indiana battery manufacturing plant. (Indianapolis Business Journal, subscription)
POLITICS: Establishing a fee for Minneapolis’ largest carbon emitters was one of multiple policies that the city’s mayor unsuccessfully attempted to veto in a disagreement with the more left-leaning city council. (MPR News)
COMMENTARY:
WIND: The federal Bureau of Land Management approves a downscaled version of the proposed Lava Ridge wind facility in southern Idaho amid lawmakers’ and advocates’ concerns about its impact to rural communities and a World War II Japanese American incarceration site. (Associated Press)
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
OVERSIGHT: Analysts say the outcome of a Utah oil-hauling railway case before the U.S. Supreme Court this week could curtail a landmark federal environmental law. (Inside Climate News)
ELECTRIFICATION:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California prepares to launch its electric bicycle incentive program for lower-income residents, but some advocates say there should be more than 1,500 vouchers available. (Electrek)
TRANSPORTATION: Colorado’s largest public transit agency breaks ground on bus rapid transit projects in the Denver area as a lower-cost alternative to new commuter or light rail lines. (Colorado Sun)
GRID: NV Energy proposes a rate increase to pay for its Greenlink West and North transmission projects, saying the projected construction cost has doubled to more than $4.2 billion. (Nevada Independent)
CLEAN ENERGY: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says an influx of federal funding and private investments are making the state a clean energy generation and manufacturing powerhouse. (Albuquerque Journal)
COAL: Residents of the Black Mesa area on the Navajo Nation create a nonprofit aimed at bringing a just transition to communities in the historic coal mining region. (Arizona Republic)
UTILITIES: Avangrid asks the New Mexico Supreme Court to vacate regulators’ order blocking its proposed merger with the state’s largest utility. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
COMMENTARY: A Nevada columnist urges lawmakers to consider data centers’ rapid growth in the state and address their high energy and water consumption. (Nevada Independent)
NATURAL GAS: Officials in a small Pennsylvania city announce plans to convert a shuttered coal-burning power plant to a natural gas-fired station and double its capacity, making it the largest gas-burning plant in the country. (Power)
ALSO: A Maine utility has completed a 14-year initiative replacing more than 125 miles of outdated and potentially unsafe gas pipes, some first installed as long as 110 years ago. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
RENEWABLES: Mass Audubon celebrates the new state climate law’s emphasis on sustainable siting for renewable energy projects, but in western Massachusetts, some groups are concerned the new rules will allow the development of large-scale solar and battery projects against the will of local residents. (Greenfield Recorder)
NUCLEAR: Some experts are skeptical that restarting the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and pursuing other nuclear power projects will actually be a meaningful solution for the energy needs of artificial intelligence. (NPR)
TRANSMISSION: Construction is roughly halfway complete on a $6 billion transmission line intended to bring hydropower from Quebec down to New York City. (Times Union)
GRID:
COAL: Hundreds of abandoned coal mines that have hollowed out the ground in parts of western Pennsylvania raise renewed safety concerns after a four-day search for a woman who fell into a sinkhole last week. (TribLive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
COMMENTARY: Maine’s struggles with malfunctioning and unsafe electric school buses from one company have sowed “disillusionment and doubt” that could harm the state’s ability to transition about from fossil fuel vehicles, says an editorial board. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
WIND: A crypto mining company purchases a 114 MW wind farm in Texas and will remove it from a regional grid to power its operations. (Houston Chronicle)
ALSO: A company secures financing for a 189 MW onshore wind farm in North Carolina, the first wind project approved by the state since state lawmakers passed siting legislation in 2013. (news release)
OIL & GAS:
EFFICIENCY: Some school districts in Houston, Texas, have installed energy efficiency measures in recent years, but many others saw soaring electricity bills from computers and air-conditioning against late summer heat. (Houston Chronicle)
STORAGE:
GRID:
EMISSIONS: West Virginia presses a federal court to rule against the U.S. EPA’s proposed power plant emission rules, which target coal-fired and new gas-fired emissions. (WV News)
CLIMATE:
COMMENTARY:
A new contract between Kalamazoo, Michigan, and utility Consumers Energy signals a change in direction for the city’s clean energy strategy as it seeks to become carbon neutral by 2040.
Solar was seen as a pillar of the city’s plans when it declared a climate emergency in 2019 and set a goal of zeroing out carbon emissions by 2040. After spending years exploring its options, though, the Michigan city is tempering a vision for rooftop solar in favor of large, more distant solar projects built and owned by the utility. It’s not alone either, with Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Muskegon and other cities taking a similar approach.
“Folks want to see solar panels on parking lots and buildings, but there’s no way as a city we can accomplish our net-zero buildings just putting solar panels on a roof,” said Justin Gish, Kalamazoo’s sustainability planner. “Working with the utility seemed to make the most sense.”
Initially there was skepticism, Gish said — “environmentalists tend to not trust utilities and large corporate entities” — but the math just didn’t work out for going it alone with rooftop solar.
The city’s largest power user, the wastewater treatment pumping station, has a roof of only 225 square feet. Kalamazoo’s largest city-owned roof, at the public service station, is 26,000 square feet. Spending an estimated $750,000 to cover that with solar would only provide 14% of the power the city uses annually — a financial “non-starter,” he said.
So the city decided to partner with Consumers Energy, joining a solar subscription program wherein Kalamazoo will tell Consumers how much solar energy it wants, starting in 2028, and the utility will use funds from its subscription fee to construct new solar farms, like a 250 MW project Consumers is building in Muskegon.
Under the 20-year contract, Kalamazoo will pay a set rate of 15.8 cents per kWh — 6.4 cents more than what it currently pays — for 43 million kWh of solar power per year. If electricity market rates rise, the city will save money, and Kalamazoo receives Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to help meet its energy goals.
The subscription is expected to eliminate about 80% of Kalamazoo’s emissions from electricity, Gish said. The electricity used to power streetlights and traffic signals couldn’t be covered since it is not metered. As the city acquires more electric vehicles — it currently has two — electricity demand may increase, but city leaders hope to offset any increases by improving energy efficiency of city buildings.
Consumers Energy spokesperson Matt Johnson said the company relies “in part” on funds from customers specifically to build solar, and considers it a better deal for cities than building it themselves, “which would be more costly for them, and they have to do their own maintenance.”
“We can do it in a more cost-effective way, we maintain it, they’re helping us fund it and do it in the right way, and those benefits get passed on to arguably everybody,” Johnson said.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, joined the subscription program at the same time as Kalamazoo. Corporate customers including 7-Eleven, Walmart and General Motors are part of the same Consumers Energy solar subscription program, as is the state of Michigan.
“There’s a growing movement of cities trying to figure out solar — ‘Yes we want to do this, it could save us money over time, but the cost is prohibitive,’” said John Farrell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Until the Inflation Reduction Act, cities couldn’t directly access federal tax credits. The direct-pay incentives under the IRA have simplified financing, Farrell said, but cities still face other financial and logistical barriers, such as whether they have sufficient rooftop space.
Advocates acknowledge deals with utilities may be the most practical way for budget-strapped cities to move the needle on clean energy, but they emphasize that cities should also strive to develop their own solar, and question whether utilities should charge more for clean power that is increasingly a cheaper option than fossil fuels.
“Our position is rooftop and distributed generation is best — it’s best for the customers, in this case the cities; it’s best for the grid, because you’re putting those resources directly on the grid where it’s needed most; and it’s best for the planet because it can deploy a lot faster,” said John Delurey, Midwest deputy director of the advocacy group Vote Solar. “I believe customers in general and perhaps cities in particular should exhaust all resources and opportunities for distributed generation before they start to explore utility-scale resources. It’s the lowest hanging fruit and very likely to provide the most bang for their buck.”
Utility-scale solar is more cost-effective per kilowatt, but Delurey notes that when a public building is large enough for solar, “you are putting that generation directly on load, you’re consuming onsite. Anything that is concurrent consumption or paired with a battery, you are getting the full retail value of that energy. That is a feature you can’t really beat no matter how good the contract is with some utility-scale projects that are farther away.”
Delurey also noted that Michigan law mandates all energy be from clean sources by 2040; and 50% by 2030. That means Consumers needs to be building or buying renewable power, whether or not customers pay extra for it.
“So there are diminishing returns [to a subscription deal] at that point,” Delurey said. “You better be getting a price benefit, because the power on their grid would be clean anyways.”
“Some folks are asking ‘Why do anything now? Just wait until Consumers cleans up the grid,’” Gish acknowledged. “But our purchase shows we have skin in the game.”
In 2009, Milwaukee adopted a goal of powering 25% of city operations — excluding waterworks — with solar by 2025. The city’s Climate and Equity Plan adopted in 2023 also enshrined that goal.
For a decade, the city has been battling We Energies over Milwaukee’s plan to install rooftop solar on City Hall and other buildings through a third-party owner, Eagle Point Solar. The city sought the arrangement — common in many states — to tap federal tax incentives that a nonprofit public entity couldn’t reap. But We Energies argued that third party ownership would mean Eagle Point would be acting as a utility and infringing on We Energies’ territory. A lawsuit over Milwaukee’s plans with Eagle Point is still pending.
In 2018, We Energies launched a pilot solar program in Milwaukee known by critics as “rent a roof,” in which the utility leased rooftop space for its own solar arrays. Advocates and Milwaukee officials opposed the program, arguing that it encouraged the utility to suppress the private market or publicly-owned solar. In 2023, the state Public Service Commission denied the utility’s request to expand the program.
Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board opposed the rent-a-roof arrangement since it passed costs they viewed as unfair on to ratepayers. But Wisconsin CUB executive director Tom Content said the city’s current partnership with We Energies is different, since it is just the city, not ratepayers, footing the cost for solar that helps the city meet its goals.
Milwaukee is paying about $84,000 extra per year for We Energies to build solar farms on a city landfill near the airport and outside the city limits in the town of Caledonia. The deal includes a requirement that We Energies hire underemployed or unemployed Milwaukee residents.
The Caledonia project is nearly complete, and will provide over 11 million kWh of energy annually, “enough to make 57 municipal police stations, fire stations, and health clinics 100% renewable electricity,” said Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office director Erick Shambarger.
The landfill project is slated to break ground in 2025. The two arrays will total 11 MW and provide enough power for 83 city buildings, including City Hall – where Milwaukee had hoped to do the rooftop array with Eagle Point.
Meanwhile Milwaukee is building its own rooftop solar on the Martin Luther King Jr. library and later other public buildings, and Shambarger said they will apply for direct pay tax credits made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act — basically eliminating the need for a third-party agreement.
“Utility-scale is the complement to rooftop,” said Shambarger. “They own it and maintain it, we get the RECs. It worked out pretty well. If you think about it from a big picture standpoint, to now have the utility offer a big customer like the city an option to source their power from renewable energy — that didn’t exist five years ago. If you were a big customer in Wisconsin five years ago, you really had no option except for buying RECs from who knows where. We worked hard with them to make sure we could see our renewable energy being built.”
We Energies already owns a smaller 2.25 MW solar farm on the same landfill, under a similar arrangement. Building solar on the landfill is less efficient than other types of land, since special mounting is needed to avoid puncturing the landfill’s clay cap, and the panels can’t turn to follow the sun. But Shambarger said the sacrifice is worth it to have solar within the city limits, on land useful for little else.
“We do think it’s important to have some of this where people can see it and understand it,” he said. “We also have the workforce requirements, it’s nice to have it close to home for our local workers.”
Madison is also pursuing a mix of city-owned distributed solar and utility-scale partnerships.
On Earth Day 2024, Madison announced it has installed 2 MW of solar on 38 city rooftops. But a utility-scale solar partnership with utility MGE is also crucial to the goal of 100% clean energy for city operations by 2030. Through MGE’s Renewable Energy Rider program, Madison helped pay for the 8 MW Hermsdorf Solar Fields on a city landfill, with 5 MW devoted to city operations and 3 MW devoted to the school district. The 53-acre project went online in 2022.
Farrell said such “all of the above” approaches are ideal.
“The lesson we’ve seen generally is the more any entity can directly own the solar project, the more financial benefit you’ll get,” he said. “Ownership comes with privileges, and with risks.
“Energy is in addition to a lot of other challenging issues that cities have to work on. The gold standard is solar on a couple public buildings with battery storage, so these are resiliency places if the grid goes down.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly reliable and are narrowing a wide gap with gas-powered vehicles, according to a new survey from Consumer Reports. (Associated Press)
ALSO: Elon Musk says the Trump administration should get rid of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, which he has said would help his company Tesla by hurting its competitors. (E&E News)
EFFICIENCY: Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen calls on the White House to “expeditiously review and approve” 10 pending energy efficiency standards, noting current rules won’t get the Biden administration to its goal for emissions reductions via efficiency. (The Hill)
HYDROGEN: Community and environmental advocates are increasingly frustrated by a lack of public information and engagement around proposed regional hydrogen hubs. (Energy News Network)
OFFSHORE WIND: Local offshore wind opponents often receive support including strategy advice, talking points, and celebrity guest speakers from national anti-wind groups funded by the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report from Brown University. (ecoRI)
CLEAN ENERGY: Companies awarded tentative federal clean energy loans to build hydrogen, electric vehicle and other manufacturing facilities worry about their fate under the Trump administration. (New York Times)
POLITICS:
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS: A report finds nine Louisiana liquified natural gas terminals that are operating, under construction or planned will receive more than $21.1 billion in local property tax breaks if all are completed, amounting to “an effective subsidy” of $6.7 million per job. (Floodlight)
OVERSIGHT: The U.S. EPA says in a year-end report that it more than doubled pollution fines and penalties over last year, made its first arrest in a climate-related crime, and stepped up enforcement in historically disadvantaged communities. (Associated Press)
GRID:
CLEAN ENERGY: New York added 7,700 clean energy jobs from 2022 to 2023 — a record increase — with especially significant jumps in the electric vehicle and clean transportation sectors. (WGRZ)
GRID: Renewable energy developers urge PJM to drop a plan to fast-track approval for select generating projects, saying the process would unfairly advantage fossil fuel and nuclear plants. (Utility Dive)
OFFSHORE WIND:
SOLAR: New Jersey regulators prepare to solicit 250 MW of community solar capacity in 2025, amid concerns that President-elect Trump could change crucial tax credits, complicating the economics of the projects. (RTO Insider, subscription)
CLIMATE: Vermont’s state environmental agency has identified $160 million in promised federal funding that could be clawed back by the incoming administration, including money supporting the transition off fossil fuels and helping low-income households go solar. (New Hampshire Public Radio)
BATTERIES: With more than a dozen battery storage projects planned on Staten Island, including one that would be New York City’s largest, locals worry about fire safety and proximity to homes and businesses. (SIlive.com)
TRANSMISSION: Stakeholders across New England widely support a plan to seek proposals to increase transmission capacity in New Hampshire and Maine, the first project to emerge from the region’s new long-term transmission planning process. (RTO Insider, subscription)
EFFICIENCY: A Massachusetts company aims to use modular construction to build affordable, net-zero homes that can also help address housing shortages. (Christian Science Monitor)
TRANSIT: Establishing an electrified commuter rail line from Boston to the western Massachusetts city of North Adams could attract hundreds of daily riders but would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, a state report concludes. (Greenfield Recorder)
INDUSTRY: A Massachusetts company completes negotiations for a $87 million federal award that will enable it to build a manufacturing plant that produces cement without using conventional fossil fuel-fired kilns. (news release)
COAL: The utilities that co-own a large Wisconsin coal plant delay the facility’s closure for a second time, now planning to shutter the 1,100 MW plant in 2029, allowing time to explore a conversion to natural gas. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
ALSO: A central Illinois coal mine is shutting down after the city of Springfield chose a cheaper supplier for its power plant. (Illinois Times)
GRID:
CLEAN ENERGY: The U.S. Energy Department office that has approved nearly $55 billion in loans to help clean energy companies scale up is racing to get “dollars out the door” before the Trump administration potentially halts the program. (Canary Media)
PIPELINES: The proposed Summit Carbon Pipeline sparks a backlash in Upper Midwest farm country against “industrial climate solutions” fueled by oil and agricultural interests and federal tax credits. (Drilled)
BIOFUELS: Biofuel advocates and lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to issue guidance on a tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel to end uncertainty for producers. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR: A manufacturer donates 2,000 solar modules to a Native-led nonprofit that will deliver nearly 1 MW of power to Midwestern tribes. (news release)
EFFICIENCY: Illinois issues $285,000 in grants to local governments to support climate action plans as well as efficiency audits and upgrades. (CBS Chicago)
.svg)
