SK On, Ford dissolve EV battery partnership

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

STORAGE

• South Korean battery maker SK On ends its partnership with Ford to build joint battery factories in the U.S., leaving SK On with full ownership of the Tennessee plant and Ford with a pair of Kentucky plants. (Reuters, Commercial Appeal, Courier-Journal)

UTILITIES

• Georgia Public Service Commission staff unveil a deal with Georgia Power that would allow the utility to add 9,885 MW of largely gas-fired generation over the next five years to supply anticipated data centers, sparking impromptu protests that led police to remove several people from a commission meeting. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Recorder)

• North Carolina regulators will hold two public hearings next week on Duke Energy’s proposal to combine its subsidiaries Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress into a single entity. (WFAE)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Battery storage and solar installations made up nearly all of the new capacity added to Texas’ grid so far this year, with batteries making up the largest share with 5,200 MW. (Inside Climate News)

• Duke Energy asks North Carolina regulators to let it withdraw a proposed renewable energy certificate program, which drew criticism from environmental groups because it would not have paid for new clean energy sources. (WFAE)

TRANSITION

• A new report by consulting firm Current Energy Group says Kentucky utilities can save ratepayers billions of dollars by shifting to renewables and battery storage, closing old coal-fired power plants, and avoiding building too much gas-fired power. (Kentucky Lantern)

WIND

• Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt criticizes the Trump administration’s ​“disappointing” handling of wind energy, saying its halt of the nearly finished Revolution Wind project ​“just looks like politics.” (Semafor)

SOLAR

• Virginia Tech researchers find three large solar farms in the state can produce ​“rapid” stormwater runoff during storms. (WHRO)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Wednesday’s Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale attracted $279 million in bids from 30 companies. (E&E News)

• Oil and gas wells in the Permian Basin are churning out so much wastewater that operators are struggling to find places to store it, leading to shallower injections and more well blowouts and ground deformation. (E&E News)

• East Kentucky Power Cooperative applies for a $90 million grant from the Trump administration to extend the lives of two coal plants by converting them to run on either coal or natural gas. (WEKU)

• Southwest Virginia communities increasingly diversify away from coal despite the Trump administration’s moves to reverse the fossil fuel’s long decline. (Virginia Business)

PIPELINES

• The Mountain Valley Pipeline holds a public meeting about its plan to increase capacity and add a compressor station in Virginia. (WXFR)

GRID

• Duke Energy argues that its plans to spend billions to add 13 GW of grid capacity over the next five years to support a surge in new data centers won’t increase ratepayers’ bills, though experts say it’s already happening to customers of utilities elsewhere in the U.S. (Charlotte Observer)

• Dominion Energy officials discuss plans to build a 70-mile, 500-kV transmission line in Virginia, confirming it won’t move the lines underground despite opposition from a county school board. (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)

• Appalachian Power announces plans to rebuild 18 miles of transmission line in Virginia. (WSLS)

NUCLEAR

• A report produced by a Virginia pro-nuclear nonprofit finds the state will need hundreds of new workers to build and operate new nuclear reactors, including jobs forecast to be in short supply. (Cardinal News)

DATA CENTERS

• Republicans from Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and elsewhere who previously championed AI development now face blowback from voters angry about data center construction and how the facilities’ power demand could drive up energy prices. (E&E News)

• Georgia residents criticize a county board for considering regulations for data centers instead of banning them outright. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• West Virginia residents increasingly oppose the construction of data centers despite state elected officials’ enthusiasm for the revenue-generating projects. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

OVERSIGHT

• A new report by the Environmental Integrity Project finds the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. EPA will have an outsized effect in Texas, where the state regulatory agency also has been reduced. (Houston Chronicle)

• Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger names longtime state lawmaker David Bulova to oversee environmental issues as her secretary of natural and historic resources. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Chart: Geothermal energy is attracting more and more investment — Dan McCarthy

• Raya Power makes a solar-battery system you can put in your backyard — Jeff St. John

• The man behind the fall of offshore wind — Clare Fieseler

• FirstEnergy bribery scheme sank Lake Erie offshore wind, lawsuit says — Kathiann M. Kowalski