Big battery in data center hotspot

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

BATTERIES

• A 1-GWh battery under construction outside Columbus, Ohio, is the biggest to date in PJM’s territory and will help suppress power prices and ease grid congestion amid massive investments in nearby data centers. (Canary Media)

• The startup behind a 5-GWh thermal battery at a South Dakota biofuels plant raises $550 million in a new funding round to build a second U.S. factory and more large-scale projects. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• RWE America’s nearly 2,000-acre western Michigan solar farm divides the community as opponents criticize a state law that gives regulators permitting authority. (MLive)

• Minnesota Power starts construction on an 85-MW solar project at the site of a coal plant in northeastern Minnesota. (Herald Review)

• More than two dozen workers on an Illinois solar project have received nearly $92,000 in back pay after a state investigation found they were not paid prevailing wages under state law. (WTVO)

PIPELINES

• A federal appeals court finds Enbridge is trespassing for running Line 5 on Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians land in northern Wisconsin, but gives the company more time to reroute the pipeline. (Reuters)

UTILITIES

• Consumers Energy’s parent company will exit its non-regulated subsidiary that develops and owns renewable energy projects, and will instead make investments through its regulated business to have more predictable returns. (Utility Dive)

• Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of his 2025 conviction involving a scheme in which allies would land jobs at ComEd in exchange for passing favorable legislation. (Chicago Sun-Times)

DATA CENTERS

• Michigan Democrats and Republicans are tapping into voters’ anxiety about power bills and the environmental impacts of data centers in this year’s election, including a hotly contested Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat. (Crain’s Detroit; E&E News)

• The CEO of We Energies’ parent company says he is confident that Oracle will be able to meet new financial requirements imposed by state regulators that the data center operator is challenging in court. (Wisconsin Public Radio)

• FirstEnergy utilities experienced a surge in data center contracts in the second quarter of this year as the company’s data center demand grew 30% to 24.8 GW. (Utility Dive)

CLIMATE

• Michigan’s new state budget recently signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) includes language meant to block the Democratic attorney general’s ongoing climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS

• Michigan regulators approve air quality permits for Marathon Petroleum’s expansion of a Detroit refinery that’s expected to increase emissions of ozone-forming pollution and sulfur dioxide. (Planet Detroit)