Virginia offshore wind is coming soon

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

• Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW offshore wind farm near Virginia takes shape as workers build at a breakneck pace, with the utility aiming to begin feeding power to the grid by March and completing construction by late 2026. (Canary Media)

• Texas and Oklahoma are two of the top three wind-generating states in the U.S., and despite voting for President Trump face the potential loss of billions of dollars in new investment from his sustained attacks on wind power. (Wall Street Journal)

STORAGE

• Texas’ Base Power raises $1 billion to boost its manufacturing of batteries and accelerate installation, bucking clean energy investment trends and demonstrating a demand for batteries’ ability to quickly boost grid power. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The U.S.’s newest coal-fired power plant, Sandy Creek in Texas, will likely remain offline until March 2027 after experiencing what appeared to be a major failure earlier this year. (IEEFA)

• Appalachian Power’s newly submitted integrated resource plan includes scenarios that envisions converting three coal power plants to gas by no later than 2035. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

• Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips all plan large-scale layoffs as analysts warn crude oil prices could reach their lowest levels since the COVID-19 shutdowns. (E&E News)

• Greensboro, North Carolina’s city council approves a resolution calling on the federal government to address environmental concerns about Transco’s gas pipeline expansion. (WFDD)

• Virginia announces a partnership with Enbridge, Williams, and Red Post Energy to conduct a study about ways to expand natural gas generation in the state. (Cardinal News, news release)

• Fermi America secures an agreement with Energy Transfer to feed natural gas to its data center campus in Texas. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A 14-year employee at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant tells Congress the company has repeatedly violated labor law by cutting jobs in the two years since workers voted to join the United Auto Workers union. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

SOLAR

• A Texas county board approves a ​“solar reinvestment zone” to provide incentives for a 6,000-acre, roughly 775 MW solar farm. (Wichita Falls Times Record News)

OVERSIGHT

• Texas health officials refuse to release detailed geographic data from a study that showed residents in a string of industrialized communities are at an elevated risk for cancer, leading to criticism from advocates. (Public Health Watch/​Univision 45)

• A Virginia commission hears a proposal to create a public website with aggregated data showing how many households have had their electricity disconnected, how long their power remained off, and how much money customers owed on their bills when they were cut off. (Cardinal News)

GRID

• Texas regulators sort out the details of a new state law that allows the state grid operator to remotely disconnect data centers and other large energy users during times of high demand, and also includes other measures to govern the proliferating, energy-hungry facilities. (Inside Climate News)

• “Everybody understands you can’t make a living farming”: A fifth-generation farmer and Virginia county supervisor surprises neighbors by cutting a deal to sell the family farm to a data center developer. (Fauquier Times)

• An Alabama city council votes to amend its zoning code to allow data centers, despite heated opposition from residents, environmental groups, and the NAACP. (Inside Climate News)

• A Virginia county board votes against rezoning 57 acres that would have brought three data centers to the area. (WSET)

COMMENTARY

• Virginia regulators should ensure utilities use new technology to maximize the amount of power that can be delivered from existing power lines to help keep energy bills affordable, writes the executive director of the Electricity Customers Alliance. (Utility Dive)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Chart: In a first, world gets more power from renewables than coal — Dan McCarthy

• Is Trump about to squash America’s carbon-removal moonshot? — Maria Gallucci

• How data centers can move fast without breaking things — Jeff St. John