How Virginia became the world’s data center capital

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Southeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

GRID

• Northern Virginia became the global leader for data center development, with 8.9 GW operating and under construction and another 24.1 GW planned, due to a key tax exemption, the presence of internet infrastructure, cheap power, and available land. (Inside Climate News)

• Virginia regulators schedule a December technical conference to study strategies to enhance grid flexibility, resilience, and affordability as the state sees unprecedented energy demand from its growing number of data centers. (news release)

• PJM’s new fast-track interconnection process could bring a wave of new gas plants as well as 2.3 GW of new battery storage to help avoid the need for more peaker plants. (Utility Dive)

• A Virginia city’s utility commission will hear a presentation about its demand response program to encourage customers to shift or reduce electric power during times of high demand. (Cardinal News)

ACTIVISM

• Cecil Roberts, the longtime leader of the United Mine Workers of America, reflects on a lifetime in the coal industry as he prepares to retire later this week. (Mountain State Spotlight)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Democrat and Republican members of Congress from Maine to Florida oppose the Trump administration’s plans to open up offshore drilling: ​“The risk is far greater than the benefit.” (E&E News)

• AARP calls for clean energy alternatives as it rallies seniors against a plan by Jacksonville, Florida’s municipal utility to build a gas-fired power plant to replace a shuttered coal plant. (WTLV)

• Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan plan to build a 1,300 mile pipeline from the Texas Panhandle to Arizona to better connect Texas refineries to western states. (Arizona Republic)

• The U.S. EPA returns control of a Louisiana motor oil manufacturing plant to owner Smitty’s Supply Inc. two months after an explosion destroyed the facility and spread soot an oily residue through the air and along a nearby river. (WWNO)

• A CSX coal train derails in Virginia, spilling diesel fuel and disrupting rail service. (WTVR)

STORAGE

• Minerva Lithium raises money to ramp up its lithium refining business in North Carolina as the state becomes a hub with new mines and electric vehicle battery manufacturers. (WFAE)

• Canada-based Aclara Resources Inc. announces it will invest $277 million to build a heavy rare earth separation facility at a Louisiana port. (Louisiana Illuminator)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Hyundai affirms its commitment to build a $6 billion steel mill in Louisiana, as it celebrates the first anniversary of its massive Georgia plant that was the site of an immigration raid earlier this fall. (WWNO, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

WIND

• Scout Clean Energy holds a turbine blade-signing ceremony to celebrate progress on construction of its 180 MW Nimbus wind farm in Arkansas. (news release)

GEOTHERMAL

• Geothermal energy is winning support from congressional Republicans, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and even Trump despite their opposition to other sources of renewable energy. (E&E News)

SOLAR

• Virginia solar installers rush to complete installations to take advantage of federal tax credits before they expire. (Virginian-Pilot)

UTILITIES

• Texas public utility staff argue that El Paso Electric’s requested profit margin is too large and that state regulators should push it to absorb more of a $47 million cost overrun it wants to bill ratepayers. (El Paso Matters)

BIOGAS

• Nopetro Energy celebrates the opening of Florida’s first landfill-to-renewable-gas production facility in Vero Beach. (West Orlando News)

POLITICS

• Environmental advocates call on Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to support legislation to protect the Okefenokee Swamp against mining after a near-miss with a company that wanted to build a titanium mine in the area. (Atlanta Journal-Constitutition)

• This is the last week of early voting for two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission before Election Day on Nov. 4. (East Cobb News)

CLIMATE

• Nonprofit organization Climate Central begins tracking billion-dollar disasters after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stops updating its database under the Trump administration. (KXAN)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Why utility regulators need to do more than call​‘balls and strikes’ — Sarah Shemkus

• California can’t get out of its own way on geothermal — Alexander C. Kaufman

• In a first, a data center is using a big battery to get online faster — Julian Spector

• The complicated reality behind rising power prices — Kathryn Krawczyk