Study: Offshore wind can power grid through high-demand winters

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.

WIND

• A new study touts offshore wind energy’s ability to boost the grid in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, especially in times of increased strain during the winter. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• First Solar formally opens a $1.1 billion, 3.5 GW Louisiana solar panel factory that began production in July. (New Orleans City Business, Renewables Now)

HYDROGEN

• Exxon Mobil pauses plans to build a Texas plant that would be one of the world’s largest hydrogen production facilities due to weak customer demand. (Reuters)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Texas officials announce a planned $617 million, 455 MW gas-fired power plant in Houston will become the sixth gas plant to receive money from a state loan program. (Houston Chronicle, Utility Dive)

• The Trump administration reverses a 30-year-old policy to propose new offshore drilling in federal waters off Florida and Alabama in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. (Associated Press, Inside Climate News)

• Texas oil producers discuss the relative accuracy of Paramount+ oilfield drama ​“Landman.” (Houston Chronicle)

UTILITIES

• Georgia regulators consider Georgia Power’s proposal to add 10 GW of generation that would go largely to power data centers, although regulatory staff recommend approving only a third of the utility’s requests for new power plants and batteries. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• CenterPoint Energy trains more than double the usual number of line workers in Houston as it goes on a hiring spree and moves to restore a workforce that’s long been outsourced. (Houston Chronicle)

CARBON CAPTURE

• A group of Louisiana residents and elected officials sue Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration over state laws allowing the use of eminent domain to take private property for pipelines transporting carbon dioxide. (Louisiana Illuminator)

STORAGE

• GridStor announces the opening of a 220 MW battery storage facility in Texas. (news release)

BIOMASS

• Tennessee regulators fine an acetylated wood facility $8,000 for violating its air permit by emitting more than 12 times the allowed amount of volatile organic compounds. (WJHL)

DATA CENTERS

• Mississippi residents complain of noise and worry about pollution after Elon Musk’s xAI deploys 59 natural gas turbines in their community to power two data centers up the road in Memphis. (Mississippi Today)

• Meta’s construction of an eye-poppingly large $27 billion data center in Louisiana has led to a more than 600% increase in vehicle crashes on surrounding roads, disrupting a nearby community. (WWNO/​Gulf States Newsroom, Bloomberg)

PIPELINES

• Columbia Gas of Virginia announces a project to replace 15,000 feet of gas pipeline in a Virginia city. (Cardinal News)

CLIMATE

• A new study finds 1,700 facilities in Louisiana are at risk of releasing hazardous materials due to 1-in-100 year floods because of rising seas. (WWNO)

• A Tennessee insurance agency says dozens of its clients who were disrupted by Hurricane Helene last year have been told their flood insurance won’t be renewed. (WJHL)

COMMENTARY

• Florida’s Congress members should fight the Trump administration’s proposal to reverse a previous ban and open up offshore oil and gas drilling off the state’s coast, writes a Republican former Congress member. (Naples Daily News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• New England kicks off $450M plan to supercharge heat pump adoption — Sarah Shemkus

• Chicago-area mayors push ahead on EVs despite federal pullback — Kari Lydersen

• Trump wants new nuclear power. So far, it’s all restarts. — Kathryn Krawczyk