N.C. governor to Duke: Build more wind and solar, less nuclear

TRANSITION: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper criticizes Duke Energy’s emission reduction plans for relying too much on new nuclear power instead of wind and solar. (Raleigh News & Observer)

GRID:

• Hurricane-battered Louisiana moves to build federally funded ​“microgrids” in 375 communities with solar panels and battery arrays that can generate electricity whenever power is knocked out. (NOLA.com)
• The CEO of Texas’ state power grid discusses how extreme weather and soaring demand will likely challenge the grid’s capacity this winter and next summer. (KRIS)

SOLAR:

• North Carolina’s shift to limit net-metering exemplifies the kind of state-level policy changes worrying solar advocates, with Florida and Arkansas considering cutting their programs. (E&E News)
• A Texas county board approves incentives to attract a Turkish solar panel maker to build an advanced manufacturing facility. (Katy Times)

COAL ASH: Dominion Energy tells Virginia regulators it has begun to remove toxic coal ash from a power plant and is recycling some into concrete. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• China’s move to restrict graphite exports could cause kinks in the U.S. electric vehicle supply chain, as companies move to build new EV and battery plants in Georgia and the Southeast. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• A Japanese electric aircraft company with plans to build its U.S. headquarters in South Carolina receives a large grant from Japan. (Charleston Regional Business Journal)
• Kentucky builds 37 new electric vehicle chargers along major highways through federal funding. (Kentucky Lantern)

OIL & GAS:

• Louisiana regulators finalize a new rule intended to reduce the roughly 17,000 non-productive oil and gas wells whose operators claim they might be used in the future, allowing them to remain unplugged. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• An energy cooperative begins operation of a 693 MW natural gas-fired power plant that replaced a now-retired coal plant in Alabama. (news release)

WIND: The first monopiles for Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project near Virginia begin to arrive. (Project Cargo Journal)

HYDROGEN: The Tennessee Valley Authority moves ahead with its plans to develop hydrogen at a former coal plant in Tennessee despite the project’s failure to win federal support. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

NUCLEAR: After Virginia officials identify seven potential sites to build a small modular nuclear reactor, local residents worry they’ll be left out of the planning process until it’s too late. (Cardinal News)

POLLUTION: Residents of a largely Black North Carolina community push for cleanup of approximately 70 years of municipal, industrial and toxic waste left behind by an aluminum plant that closed in 2007. (WFAE)

COMMENTARY:

• Tennessee and its cluster of health care services around Nashville can become global leaders by reducing the healthcare sector’s disproportionately large carbon footprint, write a CEO and former U.S. senator. (Tennessean)
• Virginia should scrap its commitment to require all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2035, writes a Republican former governor. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• A South Carolina lawmaker complains that grid strains are caused not just by growing demand and a lack of new generation, but by inefficient ​“vertically integrated monopoly utilities” that should face more competition. (Charleston Post and Courier)