Duke’s solar-powered EV charger could be a model for trucking industry

Southeast Energy News is taking a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll be back on Monday, Dec. 2.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Duke Energy builds an electric vehicle charging station near Charlotte, North Carolina, that includes a solar farm and two battery storage systems, and could become a model as commercial trucking companies electrify their fleets. (WFAE)

ALSO:

• The U.S. Energy Department announces a nearly $6 billion loan to help electric vehicle maker Rivian begin construction of its long-planned Georgia factory. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
• Virginia awards $1.1 million to an electric vehicle developer and two electric cooperatives to build EV chargers in rural parts of the state. (Virginia Mercury)
• Researchers warn electric vehicle sales could fall 27% if Donald Trump repeals a $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases even though three of four electric cars sold in the U.S. are built domestically, many in Republican-led Southeast states. (New York Times)

PIPELINES: Natural gas producer EQT announces it’s selling a stake in its pipeline network to asset manager Blackstone for $3.5 billion, which includes the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Reuters, news release)

HYDROGEN: Four partners have withdrawn from a regional network building an Appalachian hydrogen hub due to the inclusion of strict carbon emission limits in a tax credit to incentivize production. (Mountain State Spotlight)

CARBON CAPTURE:

• Carbon capture startups are leaning into their relationships with oil companies in hopes of retaining federal funding and tax credits despite the climate skepticism of the incoming Trump administration. (E&E News)
• Exxon Mobil, BP and Chevron lobby Donald Trump to keep a tax credit passed to boost carbon storage projects under development in the Gulf of Mexico. (Houston Chronicle)

CLEAN ENERGY: Federal officials award more than $3.6 million to 20 Tennessee farms and businesses to install solar power and energy efficiency upgrades. (Tennessee Lookout)

OIL & GAS: Sources close to Trump’s transition team says he plans to ​“go strong” on liquified natural gas exports. (Reuters)

GRID:

• A Texas regulator discusses a plan to expand the power grid in the Permian Basin to meet a projected 26,000 MW of new demand by 2038, with half of that coming from the oil and gas industry and half from data centers, crypto mining, hydrogen production and population growth. (Houston Chronicle)
• San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility projects it will spend $1.3 billion in the next five years on transmission and generation projects. (Houston Chronicle)
• Entergy launches a $233 five-year grid resilience plan in a Louisiana parish to strengthen nearly 200 miles of transmission and distribution lines. (news release)
• Texas regulators vote to require crypto miners to register with the state as they try to get a handle on the sector’s growing power needs. (Texas Tribune)

OVERSIGHT:

• A bipartisan group of Louisiana Congress members push to extend state waters along Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama from 3 miles to 9 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, matching Texas and Florida and allowing for more energy production. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• A Texas grid regulator announces she’ll step down at the end of the year, leaving a vacancy on the five-member board. (Houston Chronicle)

COMMENTARY: Dominion Energy’s filings reveal that data centers are single-handedly driving its escalating projections for new power demand, calling into question the utility’s proposal to build more gas-fired power plants and delay the transition to clean energy, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)