Chinese company will build Texas solar factory

SOLAR: A Chinese company accused of bypassing U.S. tariffs plans to build a $200 million solar panel factory in Texas. (Bloomberg)

ALSO:
• A Texas city prepares to break ground on a 6.5 MW solar farm it hopes will offset all of its municipal electricity use, making it the first in the state to do so. (Dallas Innovates)
• An Atlanta airport plans to add solar panels to 16 buildings through a contract to pay for the power and not the installation. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• An Arkansas school board considers entering an agreement with a company to purchase solar power at a lower price than what’s offered by utility Entergy. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• A Tennessee county board passes a measure to freeze permits for commercial solar farms unless the board grants them special-use permits. (Commercial Appeal)

GRID:
• ​“Congested” electric transmission lines that don’t have enough capacity to move sufficient amounts of energy contributed to the Texas power grid’s close call with blackouts last week, with the grid manager cutting power flows rather than risking an overload. (KUT)
• Texas battery facilities generated 2,172 MW during a critical evening last week, providing 3% of grid’s overall power and propping it up while it operated in emergency mode. (Texas Tribune)

PIPELINES:
• The Mountain Valley Pipeline sues more than 40 people and two activist organizations to prevent them from entering pipeline construction sites, where work has been delayed at least a dozen times since early July. (Roanoke Times)
• Native American and environmental activists gather to pray for North Carolina’s Haw River, which they say is seriously threatened by a proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline spur. (Raleigh News & Observer)

UTILITIES:
• President Biden appoints a member of the Memphis city council to the Tennessee Valley Authority board, not long after the city’s municipal utility considered whether to break its relationship with TVA. (Commercial Appeal)
• Civic and environmental groups push against a natural gas company’s plan to expand a compressor station and double nearly 50 miles of existing pipeline in Virginia. (Bay Journal)

COAL: A consortium of groups on the Virginia-West Virginia state line applies for federal funding to process coal byproducts into batteries, building materials and other products. (Cardinal News)

CLIMATE:
• A metro Florida county board considers granting construction and agriculture workers a legally protected right to water and shaded breaks on hot days, but both industries are pushing back against the proposal. (Miami Herald)
• Hurricane Idalia contributes to a record-breaking number of extreme weather events that cost at least $1 billion in the U.S., with four months still remaining in the year. (Associated Press)

POLITICS: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned around environmental advocacy and climate initiatives in 2018 but as a presidential candidate has shifted to deny climate change outright and rail against the clean energy transition. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

COMMENTARY: A Virginia lawmaker endorses Dominion Energy’s proposed four-turbine natural gas peaker plant as a step to ensure energy reliability. (Petersburg Progress-Index)