Orlando’s complicated path to clean energy

TRANSITION: Orlando, Florida’s municipal utility moves to build two new solar facilities, add battery storage and jettison 90% of its fossil fuel plants, but customers push back against plans to charge more for power during peak times and to decrease what it pays for rooftop solar. (Orlando Sentinel)

SOLAR:

• Arkansas’ solar industry and utilities split over a pending 60% reduction in net metering credits paid to customers with rooftop solar. (Arkansas Business)
• A Virginia official asks a county board what to do with six applications for solar farms that stacked up during a five-month moratorium on solar development and are still awaiting review. (Gazette-Virginian)
• An electricity provider signs a power purchase agreement to take the output of a 50 MW solar farm under construction in Texas. (Renewables Now)
• Dominion Energy manages honeybee hives at a Virginia solar farm. (WCAV)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Virginia struggles to develop the procedures and protocols needed for its electric vehicle infrastructure buildout, but the process is accelerating to take advantage of federal subsidies. (Virginia Mercury)
• Fueled by $26 million from the U.S. EPA, a growing number of Virginia school districts purchase electric school buses. (Virginia News Connection)

OIL & GAS: Tennessee residents and environmental groups protest in Nashville against the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to build a wave of natural gas-fired power plants across the Southeast. (Tennessean, WZTV)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• The Inflation Reduction Act continues to fuel clean energy investment two years after its passage, with a sodium battery plant in North Carolina and a factory building electric sports cars in Virginia among recent project announcements driven by the law’s tax incentives. (Canary Media)
• A renewable energy enthusiast in Virginia uses solar panels, solar roof shingles, a wind turbine, a hydrogen fuel cell and battery storage to power his home and a detached office. (Yale Climate Connections)

STORAGE: A company that makes iron-air renewable batteries receives a $150 million federal grant for its new factory in West Virginia. (WV Metro News)

EFFICIENCY: West Virginia officials ask for public feedback on a planned rebate program for home climate control and energy efficiency improvements. (WV Metro News)

NUCLEAR: A Republican Congress member introduces legislation to expand nuclear power and suggests adding two small modular nuclear reactors at an existing Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Alabama. (WHNT)

PIPELINES: Texas residents are allowed to return home after a multi-day pipeline fire went out and an evacuation order was lifted. (Houston Chronicle)

COMMENTARY: Duke Energy’s North Carolina customers are enjoying a short-term rate reduction, but the utility’s ongoing reliance on natural gas over renewables ultimately will leave it susceptible to fuel markets’ unpredictable price swings, writes an environmental advocate. (Greensboro News & Record)