Can quick-build batteries speed Virginia’s energy transition?

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

STORAGE

• Two 10 MW battery storage systems on Virginia’s rural eastern peninsula could fill in the ​“missing middle” in the state’s transition to clean energy because they’re relatively easy to permit, they pair well with renewables, and they’re cheaper and quicker to build than large utility-scale projects. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• T1 Energy’s solar photovoltaic module factory near Dallas, Texas, hits its stride and is running fast enough to produce 5 GW per year, even as the Trump administration targets clean energy and leans toward fossil fuels. (Canary Media)

• West Virginia regulators award permits to a 90 MW solar farm that will connect to a nearby Appalachian Power transmission line. (WV Metro News)

UTILITIES

• Virginia regulators approve a new rate class for large customers demanding 25 MW or more — including data centers — and sign off on Dominion Energy’s request to build a $1.47 billion, 944 MW gas peaker plant despite opposition from community and environmental groups. (Virginia Mercury, news release)

• The Georgia Public Service Commission’s staff recommends it approve only a third of the new power plants and batteries that Georgia Power has proposed, as its pipeline of large economic development projects fell 6 GW from the second to the third quarter because a number of projects — largely data centers — exited the queue. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Utility Dive)

• Virginia regulators approve a rate increase for Appalachian Power to allow it to recover $69 million in costs associated with wind, solar, and battery projects. (Cardinal News)

• El Paso, Texas’ municipal electric utility seeks a rate increase from state regulators to pay off $1.55 billion in capital investments, while gas and water utilities also seek rate hikes that could lead to city residents paying an additional $45 in monthly utility bills. (El Paso Matters)

PIPELINES

• Virginia landowners and activists gear up to fight the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s proposed gas compressor station and expansion into North Carolina. (WVTF, WDBJ)

EFFICIENCY

• Coming off big electoral wins this month that came after focusing on energy affordability, Virginia Democrats file two priority bills to create an energy efficiency task force and to force utilities to give qualified customers efficiency upgrades by 2031. (Virginia Mercury)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe says the EV maker is banking on a software advantage and its newest vehicle, the two-row crossover R2, to renew its fortunes and boost the company’s planned Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Environmentalists and public health advocates fret over the Trump administration’s moves to allow coal plants to release more pollution as Dominion Energy, Georgia Power, and other utilities postpone the retirement of such plants due to data centers’ energy demands. (E&E News)

• A Virginia county planning commission delays a vote on Tenaska’s proposal to build a 1.5 GW gas-fired power plant to feed the PJM grid. (Inside Climate News)

• A Texas regulator recuses himself from a vote to renew the permit for an oilfield waste company to which he has financial ties, spotlighting the close relationship between the state’s oil and gas industry and the officials who oversee it. (Inside Climate News)

CARBON CAPTURE

• One of three elected Republicans on Texas’ Railroad Commission publicly disagrees with a recent staff decision to permit a carbon removal and storage project, questioning how much it’s been studied and tying it to emission reduction efforts. (E&E News)

DATA CENTERS

• The Sierra Club and two other groups appeal West Virginia regulators’ decision to approve a permit for a gas plant to power a data center and to keep information about air emissions secret. (Mountain State Spotlight)

• Data center company Infrakey negotiates with a Texas county and town over a large-scale data center project and related 1.2-gigawatt gas-fired plant. (Texas Tribune)

POLITICS

• Republican West Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Justice agrees to pay more than $5 million in delinquent income tax debt from 2009, the year he sold his family coal company to a Russian firm for about $436 million in cash and stock. (WV Metro News, Washington Post)

• The U.S. Senate sets a hearing for a Nashville businessman who’s been nominated by Trump to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Connecticut’s pioneering model for publicly owned, small-scale solar — Jeff St. John

• Aluminum giants hit major milestone with low-carbon production — Maria Gallucci