California’s 9-year-plus grid hookup wait times

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

GRID

• Energy analytics firm Enverus identifies California’s CAISO power grid as having one of the longest queue times in the U.S. in a report that finds wind, solar, and stationary battery projects can end up waiting up to 9 years before they can be linked up. (Forbes, news release)

• Power Bridge is preparing applications to receive state and federal approval to build an 80-mile transmission line beneath the Columbia River to transfer renewable power from eastern Oregon, Idaho, and other states to substations in western Oregon. (KATU)

WIND

• California regulators set a public meeting about a proposed 48-turbine, 205 MW wind farm that’s become the subject of a lawsuit by Shasta County and the Pit River Tribe. (Redding Record Searchlight)

STEEL

• A Boulder, Colorado-based company receives an $8 million state industrial tax credit to build a factory using its patented method to remove most carbon emissions and make steel at a much lower temperature than most traditional processes. (Colorado Sun)

POLITICS

• The Trump administration lays off 114 workers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, including employees at its Colorado headquarters and others working remotely. (CBS News, Colorado Public Radio)

• Trump signs an executive order directing the U.S. Justice Department to investigate state policies that limit fossil fuel use to reduce climate change, prompting criticism and pushback from California Democrats who see the order as an attack. (Spectrum News)

EFFICIENCY

• The Trump administration’s reorganization of the U.S. EPA includes plans to end the popular Energy Star program that certifies energy-efficient home appliances. (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post)

SOLAR

• EDP Renewables North America launches operations at a 200 MW solar farm and 150 MW battery storage facility in California, coming on the heels of the project’s first phase last year. (news release)

• Idaho’s solar industry expresses concern about Idaho Power’s push to reduce export credit rates it pays to solar power generators. (Idaho Press)

• Cypress Creek Renewables secures financing to build a 104 MW solar farm in Washington. (PV Tech)

STORAGE

• Two companies say they’re still on track to build battery manufacturing facilities in Washington after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration can’t block already-approved federal grants that both received. (Source One)

EMISSIONS

• The state of Utah sues Green Natural Gas Ventures LLC, after an inspector found its now-defunct gas and helium plant exposed nearby residents to air pollution and violated seven conditions of its operating permit. (Salt Lake Tribune)

• Researchers at the University of California, Davis, find that adding seaweed to cows’ diets could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but determining how to feed it to cattle grazing in open pastures and on public lands could present logistical challenges. (Inside Climate News)

CLIMATE

• Colorado lawmakers kill legislation that proposed a 1% fee on homeowners insurance premiums to create a state grant program to encourage hail-resistant roofs and a reinsurance program to reduce wildfire risk. (Aspen Times)

• An independent California commission recommends creating new local government authorities to coordinate and oversee planning and construction efforts to Los Angeles neighborhoods that were destroyed by wildfires. (Los Angeles Times)

COMMENTARY

• California’s insistence on zero-carbon climate policies is raising energy costs and making the grid more unreliable, writes a columnist. (Los Angeles Times)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Startup Inlyte Energy will partner with utility Southern Co. to test whether 1980s-designed iron-salt battery technology can work on a large scale. Julian Spector reports.

• New Jersey’s attorney general tells Clare Fieseler that he is participating in the 17-state lawsuit against President Trump’s offshore wind actions because the executive order is unlawful, unconstitutional, and ​“just makes no sense.”

• Prisma Photonics’ technology utilizes existing fiber-optic cables to detect disruptions along high-voltage transmission lines, helping utilities avoid the timely, expensive task of building sensors from scratch, Jeff St. John reports.