Duke’s new North Carolina program boosts efficiency upgrades

EFFICIENCY: Usually critical North Carolina clean energy advocates praise Duke Energy for a recently finalized program that will allow homeowners and renters to reimburse the utility over time for more efficient heat pumps, water heaters, and other home upgrades. (Energy News Network)

STORAGE:

• Texas’ growth of battery installation, from 275 MW in 2020 to 3,500 MW now, played a major role in protecting the state grid against blackouts this summer even as it set records for power demand. (Canary Media)
• American and South Korean companies announce plans to build a $65 million battery recycling facility in Kentucky that will provide materials to a separate battery-related operation in the same town. (Associated Press)

Utility Accountability
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CLIMATE:

• A new report finds Florida’s rapid residential growth along its coastlines is resulting in higher hurricane damages, stating that last year’s record-breaking damages from Hurricane Ian would have been much less had the storm hit in the 1970s. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Florida scientists study whether rising ocean temperatures are hurting recovery of seagrass that’s an important piece of the region’s ecosystem. (Tampa Bay Times)
• As summer comes to a close, a lingering drought in Texas continues to cause wildfires, damage agriculture and dry up water supplies. (Texas Tribune)

SOLAR:

• A Virginia farm considers a proposal to build a 100 MW solar facility, while county planners prepare to vote on a 50 MW solar project on a different farm. (Winchester Star)
• A Virginia county planning board again recommends against a 50 MW solar farm even after its developer revised plans to downsize the project. (Amherst New Era-Progress)

POLLUTION: The U.S. EPA continues to dismiss calls to relocate residents from a West Virginia town with high cancer rates where electrical transformers with cancer-causing chemicals were stored. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

OIL & GAS: Work has begun to cap abandoned oil and gas wells at a national wildlife refuge and other federal property in West Virginia. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

COAL ASH: An environmental group’s new list of power plants that store coal ash in surface lagoons includes two facilities in northern Georgia. (Rome News-Tribune)

HYDROGEN: West Virginia and partners in the Appalachian region pursue federal funding for a hydrogen hub despite unanswered questions about its environmental and economic impacts. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Tesla fans believe the company is close to finally launching sales of its Cybertruck built at its Texas factory. (TheStreet)

POLITICS: Elected leaders and reporters question liabilities listed on coal magnate and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s campaign finance forms. (WV Metro News)

COMMENTARY:

• Climate change and other factors are pushing talented Louisiana residents to other states despite positive economic news, writes an editorial board. (NOLA.com)
• First Solar’s use of cadmium telluride instead of polysilicon in solar panels and support from federal incentives boost its expansion with new factories in Alabama and Louisiana, writes an editorial board. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Richmond, Virginia’s network of severely leaking gas pipes and record of improper billing are signs the city should establish a regulatory oversight commission, writes a climate activist. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Without air conditioning in two-thirds of Texas prisons, inmates are being ​“cooked like a rotisserie chicken,” writes an incarcerated individual. (Guardian/​Prison Journalism Project)