Conservation group challenges Wisconsin’s largest solar project

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

SOLAR

• A Wisconsin conservation group appeals state regulators’ decision approving a 7,000-acre, 1,315 MW solar project near a state wildlife area that’s home to most of Wisconsin’s greater prairie chickens. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

• Developers start construction on a $300 million, 250 MW solar project in central Missouri that will operate under a power purchase agreement with Meta. (Renewables Now)

GRID

• Minnesota electric cooperatives increasingly turn to virtual power plants that control customers’ energy use during peak demand periods and limit pressure on the grid as more fossil fuel plants come offline. (MPR News)

• These strategies to ramp down demand during peak periods could help meet an anticipated spike in demand from data centers without adding new generation, according to a new Duke University analysis. (Inside Climate News)

WIND

An Iowa wind energy developer seeks more clarity from the Trump administration over whether projects can proceed with permitting, saying hundreds of jobs are at stake across the state. (KCCI)

UTILITIES

Xcel Energy proposes new strategies, including requiring competitive bids, for selling utility-owned land to private companies to avoid another scenario that left ratepayers out of potentially tens of millions of dollars from a property sale to support a data center. (Star Tribune)

CLEAN ENERGY

The country’s record-breaking growth for new solar, wind and battery storage projects thanks to declining costs and policy support from the Biden administration is under threat as the Trump administration works to claw back federal clean energy funding. (Canary Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

A joint venture co-founded by some of the world’s leading automakers will move forward with plans to deploy 30,000 electric vehicle charging bays around the U.S. by 2030, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to freeze billions in federal funding. (Automotive Dive)

OIL & GAS

Minnesota is a major importer of oil and other goods from Canada, a relationship that could be strained and cause rising prices with new blanket 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Minnesota and Canadian business leaders say. (WCCO)

COMMENTARY

• Minnesota’s lawsuit claiming major oil companies are responsible for a climate change misinformation campaign spanning decades should be allowed to proceed, an environmental advocacy group’s attorney writes. (Minnesota Reformer)

• The head of a Wisconsin environmental group says We Energies’ proposed investments in natural gas plants is a financial and environmental mistake that would saddle ratepayers with long-term costs. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)