Hydrogen fuel cell microgrid goes online in northern California

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

GRID

• Energy Vault and Pacific Gas & Electric bring online a hydrogen fuel cell-powered microgrid in northern California designed to provide backup to a wildfire-prone community during outages. (Canary Media)

• California advocates debate whether establishing a Western day-ahead power market and integrated regional grid will facilitate clean energy or expose the state to more fossil fuel generation. (CalMatters)

UTILITIES

• Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs criticizes APS for walking back its climate targets, extending the life of the Four Corners coal plant, and investing in a proposed natural gas pipeline. (KJZZ)

• Arizona’s two largest utilities say extreme heat in the Phoenix area pushed peak power demand to record highs last week. (Arizona Republic)

• PacifiCorp opens its wildfire monitoring center designed to help it plan public safety power outages in Medford, Oregon. (OPB)

NUCLEAR

• California firm Radiant Nuclear plans to provide the world’s first mass-manufactured microreactors to U.S. military bases by 2028. (E&E News)

SOLAR

• A New Mexico county is set this week to resume hearings on the contentious proposed Rancho Viejo solar-plus-storage project three miles south of Santa Fe. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

CARBON CAPTURE

• The federal Bureau of Land Management allows an Exxon Mobil subsidiary to drill a test well at the site of its proposed carbon sequestration project in southeastern Montana. (Montana Free Press)

FOSSIL FUELS

• U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a New Mexico Democrat, introduces federal legislation that would require oil and gas companies to pay for their employees’ health care, citing dangerous working conditions. (Source NM)

• The U.S. Interior Department approves the Navajo Transitional Energy Company’s proposed Antelope coal mine expansion in the Powder River Basin. (County 17, news release)

• The U.S. Geological Survey finds more than a century of drilling has nearly depleted the Phosphoria oilfield in southwestern Wyoming, but that ample critical mineral reserves remain. (Cowboy State Daily)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• California regulators are poised to roll out proposals to keep EV adoption on pace amid federal cutbacks and Trump administration hostility. (San Francisco Public Press)

• Oregon plans to suspend its standard EV rebate program next month due to lack of funds just weeks before federal incentives expire. (OPB)

• Ford opens its 250,000-square-foot EV development campus in Long Beach, California. (Assembly)

DATA CENTERS

• Joule Capital Partners plans to power its proposed 4,000 MW data center in Utah with a distributed natural gas generator system that captures waste heat to cool its servers. (Power)

MINING

• Southern Arizona residents push back against the proposed South32 battery-materials project after developers warn mining activities could dry up or contaminate area drinking water wells. (Inside Climate News)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• DOE is raising power bills by thwarting transmission line, Heinrich says — Jeff St. John

• This hydrogen microgrid is the first of its kind. Is it a good idea? — Julian Spector

• Building electrification and fast, affordable construction can coexist — Kathryn Krawczyk