Elderly, low-income Virginians get free solar from Dominion pilot program

SOLAR: Qualified elderly, low-income households in Virginia are receiving free weatherization and solar installations through a Dominion Energy pilot program that grew out of Republican-sponsored 2019 legislation. (Energy News Network)

ALSO:

• Electric vehicle maker Rivian signs a contract to buy power from a 100 MW solar farm built atop a former coal mine in Kentucky. (GreenBiz)
• A Virginia town delays for at least a month a vote to change its code to allow small- and medium-scale solar projects in residential zones. (South Boston News & Record)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority partners with an energy company to build three Mississippi solar farms totaling 550 MW plus 150 MW of battery storage. (WCBI)

OIL & GAS: 

• ExxonMobil acquires one of the Permian Basin’s largest oil and gas operators in a nearly $60 billion deal. (New York Times)
• Community advocates in Fort Worth, Texas, unite residents to fight growing industrialization and natural gas wells in neighborhoods of color. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
• Texas utility critics worry about state legislation that could restrict cities’ ability to regulate rebates from natural gas utilities. (Austin Monitor)

COAL: South Carolina regulators fine the state-owned power utility for repeatedly spewing harmful air pollution from an aging coal-fired power plant on the coast. (The State)

EFFICIENCY: Virginia officials say residents in a key county are underutilizing publicly-funded weatherization and electric vehicle incentives to reduce emissions and lower their bills. (Tysons Reporter)

GRID: The head of a South Carolina electric cooperative warns Congress members the state’s surging population is outpacing the power grid’s capacity and will likely lead to more outages. (WYFF)

HYDROGEN: Florida Power & Light launches a pilot project to use water and solar power to create ​“green” hydrogen that will then be blended with natural gas to generate electricity. (WLRN)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The United Auto Workers expands its strike to Ford’s largest and most profitable U.S. factory in Kentucky, which is also home to two planned electric vehicle battery plants that are part of the automaker’s shift to EVs. (Detroit News)

FINANCE: Oklahoma lawmakers rethink a 2022 law requiring the state treasurer divest from ​“financial companies that boycott energy companies” because of concerns state entities are losing money. (Tulsa World)

CLIMATE:

• Louisianans reel from a combination of climate-exacerbated storm damage and the insurance industry’s pullback, amplifying disparities and contributing to the national wealth gap. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• North Carolina’s population of nine-banded armadillos is growing as climate change results in rising temperatures in all seasons but especially winter. (Wilmington StarNews)

UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority and Memphis, Tennessee’s municipal authority hand out nearly a half-million dollars in bill assistance after meter issues caused customers to receive multiple delayed bills in short order. (Commercial Appeal)

COMMENTARY:

• An environmental law firm calls out the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to build a 200 MW natural gas plant at the site of a shuttered coal plant in Memphis, Tennessee. (Southern Environmental Law Center)
• North Carolina lawmakers’ override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill allowing the use of nuclear energy to meet the state’s emission reduction goals opens the door for ​“the most reliable clean-energy source we have available,” writes a fellow at a conservative think tank. (Carolina Journal)