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Michigan plant aims to ​‘change the battery world’

By Andy Balaskovitz

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STORAGE: A company opens the first U.S. long duration, sodium-ion battery manufacturing plant in western Michigan in what officials call a ​“milestone for the battery industry.” (WWMT)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Minneapolis-St. Paul’s regional public transit agency will buy 20 electric buses to put in service by 2026 to help meet emission-reduction targets. (Star Tribune)

GRID: A federal judge upholds a decision to block a land swap needed to complete a major transmission line between Iowa and Wisconsin, creating more uncertainty for the project. (E&E News, subscription)

CLEAN ENERGY:

WIND: North Dakota regulators approve plans for a 200 MW wind project that includes an 18-mile transmission line. (North Dakota Monitor)

PIPELINES: At a North Dakota Republican Party convention, a resolution objecting to the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines falls two votes short. (North Dakota Monitor)

AIR QUALITY: Wildfire smoke helped keep Fargo, North Dakota, on an annual ranking of the 25 worst U.S. cities for short-term particle pollution. (MPR News)

POLITICS: The top GOP candidates for Indiana governor say they would take steps to emphasize coal and reshape the state’s utility oversight board. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

GRID:

  • Michigan is a national outlier for major power outages since 2000, ranking second only behind Texas in the number of incidents over that period. (Axios)
  • Consumers Energy will install about 1,200 iron utility poles in its Michigan service area as an alternative to wood poles that executives will help curb outages. (WKZO)

BIOGAS:

COMMENTARY:

  • Ohio oil and gas regulators ignored reports of contaminated groundwater from drilling that was threatening the public’s health and safety, a columnist writes. (Ohio Capital Journal)
  • Wisconsin lawmakers earlier this year rightly rejected proposals to limit private property owners’ ability to site renewable energy projects on their properties, a clean energy advocate writes. (Capital Times)

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