Entrepreneur brings clean energy to disinvested Chicago communities

CLEAN ENERGY: A Chicago entrepreneur launched a company in 2019 to not only install solar and electric vehicle charging stations in disinvested communities, but also to provide job training opportunities to residents. (Energy News Network)

ELECTRIFICATION: Minnesota’s natural gas infrastructure and customer base continues to grow despite ongoing pushes toward electrification. (Star Tribune)

SOLAR:
• Alliant Energy will be among the first utilities in the U.S. to use a tax credit provision in the Inflation Reduction Act allowing it to own its solar projects and pass down about $138 million in savings to customers. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Ameren says the Inflation Reduction Act will lead to customer savings and is ​“especially pertinent” to its plan to build a 150 MW solar project in southern Illinois. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Income-eligible subscribers to three Ameren community solar projects in Illinois will begin receiving bill credits of up to $1,000 a year for the next three years. (Daily Energy Insider)
• Ameren has pursued rural farmland and urban sites for two new solar projects following the passage of the Illinois Clean Energy Jobs Act last year. (WCBU)
• A central Illinois city council approves plans for a community solar project that’s expected to generate up to $200,000 for the city over the life of the project. (Pontiac Daily Leader)

COAL:
• Federal regulators say Ameren Missouri’s 1,195 MW Rush Island power plant must stay open to maintain grid reliability, but rejected the utility’s request for a higher cost recovery for keeping the plant running longer than planned. (Utility Dive)
• A long-shuttered western Minnesota coal plant that dates to the 1930s and has served as a community landmark will be imploded today. (MPR News)

PIPELINES: The developer of a proposed $3.2 billion, multi-state carbon pipeline seeks to use eminent domain under a permit requested from the state of Iowa this week. (Des Moines Register)

NUCLEAR: The new owner of a shuttered southwestern Michigan nuclear plant expects to decide by January whether to reopen the plant, a decision largely contingent on receiving federal funding. (Bloomberg, subscription)

UTILITIES: The former CEO of DTE Energy discusses his time leading the utility’s clean energy transition as University of Michigan students protest the company’s ongoing fossil fuel use. (Michigan Daily)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Michigan will purchase 138 new electric school buses under a federal program to replace aging diesel buses in districts serving low-income, rural and Indigenous students. (MLive)
• Wisconsin will receive $25.8 million under the federal program to buy 72 new electric buses across 19 school districts. (Wisconsin Examiner)
• A lack of coordinated state and local electric vehicle charging regulations is hindering the widespread rollout of charging infrastructure, a new report says. (Smart Cities Dive)
• Charging station availability in Minnesota improves as more drivers switch to electric vehicles. (CBS Minnesota)