Bureaucrats-turned-consultants push data centers in Virginia coal country

GRID: A pair of former Virginia bureaucrats turned private-sector consultants push a plan endorsed by state Gov. Glenn Youngkin to transform 65,000 acres of minelands into an energy complex to include solar-powered data centers cooled by mine water, as well as test sites for other energy sources. (Energy News Network)

STORAGE: Leaders of a North Carolina county with declining population and the state’s third highest unemployment rate hope a planned $1.4 billion sodium-ion battery factory will provide an economic jolt. (Carolina Public Press)

CLEAN ENERGY: Kentucky maneuvers to secure Century Aluminum’s planned new smelter — the first to be built in the U.S. in 45 years — but the plant could require at least a gigawatt’s worth of clean power each year to operate at full tilt, and the state has very little carbon-free capacity available right now. (Canary Media)

SOLAR: A renewables company secures Google to take all of the energy produced by a planned 128 MW solar farm and 100 MW battery system in Texas. (Renewables Now)

OIL & GAS:

• Reports that Shell will cut its oil and gas exploration and development workforce by 20% exacerbate worries about a Gulf Coast workforce that’s shrunk as companies have consolidated and become more efficient. (Reuters, Houston Chronicle)
• A Texas liquified natural gas terminal asks federal regulators for another three years to complete construction after its lead contractor went bankrupt. (Houston Chronicle)
• South Carolina’s attorney general urges a court to dismiss the city of Charleston’s climate lawsuit against the oil and gas industry. (E&E News, subscription)
• Four of the 17 natural gas-fired power plant projects approved by Texas regulators to possibly receive state-backed loans are planned for the Permian Basin. (Houston Chronicle)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Virginia is well-poised for the transition to electric vehicles, but the cost of installing chargers and purchasing electric vehicles for government fleets is slowing the process. (Virginia Mercury)

PIPELINES:

• Federal regulators collect public comment on a proposed 646-mile natural gas pipeline across Texas. (Midland Reporter-Telegram)
• An author and pipeline fighters will speak this week about the successful push to stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, as well as the unsuccessful fight to block the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Augusta Free Press)

COAL: Federal regulators fined a West Virginia coal mine 2,096 times since 2019 before a miner’s death there last week. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

GRID: Texas’ state grid operator complains U.S. EPA regulations limiting power plant emissions are acting as ​“handcuffs” that could endanger reliability. (Houston Chronicle)

UTILITIES: South Carolina regulators consider Duke Energy’s plan to build a transmission line to a new substation, extend the lives of its nuclear plants, and expand operations at a hydro-storage facility. (WLTX)

COMMENTARY: The new technology behind enhanced geothermal systems could be deployed to provide power to Virginia’s burgeoning data centers, though cost and a current lack of governmental support could slow the process of implementation, writes an energy columnist. (Virginia Mercury)