Battery company wins backing for low-cost model

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STORAGE

• Texas startup Base Power attracts $200 million from investors to build a battery factory and continue to expand its model of selling low-cost battery systems to homeowners while it also dispatches excess stored energy into the state’s power market. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The U.S. Mine Health and Safety Administration announces it will delay implementation of a rule to limit miners’ exposure to silica dust — a factor in black lung disease — as the Trump administration moves to ramp up coal production. (West Virginia Watch)

• A federal court upholds Tennessee regulators’ decision to award a water quality permit for a 32-mile natural gas pipeline to a coal plant the Tennessee Valley Authority plans to replace with gas units. (Politico)

• Trump’s executive orders to spur the coal industry create questions around energy affordability in coal-reliant Kentucky. (Kentucky Lantern)

CARBON CAPTURE

• The U.S. EPA approves Texas oil and gas company Occidental Petroleum’s proposal to build a direct air carbon capture facility to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and inject it underground. (Texas Tribune)

SOLAR

• An India-based energy company announces it will double the capacity of its Texas solar factory to produce 3.2 GW of modules annually. (Renewables Now)

• A North Carolina state lawmaker introduces a bill to cut tax incentives and tighten restrictions on utility-scale solar projects, including a provision to reduce the maximum tax abatement from 80% to 40% of appraised value. (PV Magazine)

• A Georgia county board considers a company’s request for a tax abatement on a solar farm that would generate between 100 MW and 160 MW for Georgia Power. (Albany Herald)

• A student-led group at the University of Virginia helps outfit a campus food truck with solar panels to power its operations. (WVIR)

NUCLEAR

• Federal regulators approve a 20-year license extension for a Duke Energy nuclear power plant in South Carolina. (Greenville Business Magazine)

GRID

• Virginia leads the U.S. in data center development, while Texas, Georgia, and Florida emerge as focal points for the growing, power hungry industry. (States Newsroom)

• A company submits plans to build a 29-building data center campus in Georgia, powered by six on-site substations. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• Southern Virginia communities try to determine the potential tax revenue and other benefits from data centers, and some residents are especially skeptical about promised jobs and their salaries. (Cardinal News)

• West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey advocates for legislation to encourage the use of coal to power microgrids to attract data centers. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WV Metro News)

UTILITIES

• Tennessee’s U.S. senators introduce legislation to require the Tennessee Valley Authority to publicly disclose all salaries above the highest pay grade for federal employees, even though the utility doesn’t use the scale or pay employees from taxpayer dollars. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

• The Tennessee Valley Authority announces a new senior vice president and chief of government relations. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

COMMENTARY

• The Tennessee Valley Authority is adding to the risk faced by southwest Memphis, Tennessee, residents who already carry heavy environmental burdens with its proposal to expand a gas-fired power plant, writes a clean energy advocate. (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• President Trump’s coal executive order includes a plan to give the U.S. Energy Department the authority to force any power plant to stay open, Jeff St. John reports.

Kathiann M. Kowalski rounds up the latest from Ohio’s power plant bailout scandal, including how it will impact FirstEnergy’s ongoing rate case.