Qcells to lay off 1,000+ workers at Georgia solar factories

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SOLAR

• Solar panel maker Qcells announces it will furlough 1,000 workers and 300 staffing agency employees at its Georgia factories as U.S. customs officials detain shipments of solar cells at U.S. ports because of a 2021 law banning imports from a region of China. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Reuters)

POLITICS

• After campaigning on energy affordability, Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger will take on the challenge of hewing to the state’s landmark clean energy law against Dominion’s plans to build a raft of new gas plants. (Canary Media)

• Experts say Georgia Democrats’ success in flipping two seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission ensures that energy affordability will remain a prominent issue, even if rates don’t immediately come down. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey joins Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear as the only two governors not participating in a bipartisan group to press PJM Interconnection to make its 13-state power grid more affordable and reliable, even though West Virginia has one of the fastest-rising electricity rates in the U.S. (Mountain State Spotlight)

• Advocacy groups call on Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to halt utility disconnections during the federal government shutdown. (Kentucky Lantern)

DATA CENTERS

• Google and Microsoft officials discuss how utilities’ plans in Virginia and elsewhere to build gas-fired power plants and extend the life of coal plants to meet the tech sector’s rising power demands will complicate their goals to slash carbon emissions. (Canary Media)

• The Republican president of West Virginia’s state senate says he’s unhappy with key provisions of a new state law to expedite data center development and largely fossil fuel-powered microgrids to power them, and will push for revisions. (Country Roads News)

• Residents of a tourism-based West Virginia county fight to appeal a permit for an off-the-grid gas-fired power plant to power an enormous data center despite a state law that strips localities of their ability to regulate such projects. (West Virginia Watch)

• A Virginia county board more than two hours south of ​“Data Center Alley” frustrates residents by creating a technology overlay district to attract data centers and other energy-intensive projects in pursuit of jobs and tax revenue. (Virginia Mercury)

UTILITIES

• A consultant seems to be focusing only on private for-profit companies to recommend the pay rate for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s CEO, instead of a larger survey that also includes government-owned public agencies as required by the federal utility’s founding law. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Trump’s attacks on wind energy on the East Coast are hurting related Louisiana businesses that are also a significant part of the offshore oil and gas industry along the Gulf Coast. (Louisiana Illuminator)

• Emergency responders use divers and an underwater drone to reach a miner trapped after crews hit an unknown pocket of water and flooded a West Virginia coal mine. (AP News, WV News)

• A West Virginia appeals court overturns the dismissal of charges against four people who protested the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

NUCLEAR

• Florida lawmakers meet to discuss how the state might accommodate advanced nuclear technologies to meet surging energy demand. (Florida Politics)

CLIMATE

• Democrats and environmentalists follow Florida’s lead by omitting mentions of ​“climate change” and emphasizing ​“cheap energy” instead because the topic has become politically radioactive even as its real-life effects continue to worsen. (Grist)

• A Louisiana family recovering from 2021’s Hurricane Ida has done everything right but is still struggling because their insurance company can’t make its payments, revealing the fragility of the country’s property insurance landscape in the face of climate change. (Verite News/​Grist)

COMMENTARY

• Virginia should consider advocacy organization Rewiring America’s proposal to free up grid capacity by having tech companies pay to retrofit homes with heat pumps, water heaters, solar panels, and energy storage to reduce residential demand while saving ratepayers on power bills, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY

• This startup wants to build pumped hydro storage in the ocean — Julian Spector

• Xcel doubles down on plan to swap coal for clean power in Minnesota — Brian Martucci