XGS Energy poised to scale advanced geothermal

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

HYDROPOWER

• Hundreds of hydroelectric stations face relicensing over the next decade, but a shrinking hydropower manufacturing sector, the growing cost of upgrading aging dams, and layers of bureaucracy could lead many to shut down. (Canary Media)

• Bonneville Power Administration agrees to purchase all power generated at the PacWave wave-energy testing facility in Oregon. (OPB)

GEOTHERMAL

• XGS Energy says it has successfully tested its advanced geothermal technology without losing any water, clearing the way for it to develop a 150 MW facility in New Mexico to power Meta data centers. (Canary Media)

GRID

• Pacific Gas & Electric plans to spend $73 billion by 2030 for transmission upgrades aimed at meeting growing data center-driven electricity demand. (Reuters)

• California regulators begin allowing distributed solar and storage projects to connect to the grid faster if they use approved power control systems to limit generation. (PV Magazine)

• Vistra plans to triple the generating capacity of its natural gas plant in the Permian Basin to meet surging demand from new data centers and a growing population and oil and gas industry. (E&E News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Republican Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon praises the Trump administration for opening 13.1 million acres of federal land to new coal leasing and infusing the industry with $625 million, saying it could revitalize Powder River Basin mines and pay for carbon capture on aging facilities. (WyoFile, news release, news release)

• Valdez, Alaska’s city government calls on Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. to upgrade infrastructure aimed at mitigating impacts of potential oil spills at a storage facility on Prince William Sound. (Northern Journal)

• Sable Offshore proposes seeking federal permission to ship oil from a rig off California’s coast in an effort to circumvent state pipeline restrictions. (E&E News)

• Advocacy groups file a lawsuit accusing Montana regulators of failing to follow the state Supreme Court’s order to consider a new natural gas plant’s impact on human and environmental health. (Daily Montanan)

• Federal prosecutors charge five men for conspiracy to steal and sell crude oil from a New Mexico pipeline. (KOB, news release)

• Pipeline firm SFPP agrees to pay the U.S. EPA a $213,560 penalty to resolve Clean Water Act violation claims related to a 40,000-gallon gasoline spill in Walnut Creek, California, in 2021. (Pipeline Technology Journal)

CLEAN ENERGY

• California developer Linea Energy proposes a 349 MW solar-plus-storage installation on ranchland north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

• Los Angeles’s Department of Water and Power launches a program to fund rooftop solar-plus-battery storage installations on low-income households and apartment buildings. (LAist)

• Colorado residential solar subscription service Spruce Power lays off 40 employees in an effort to ​“streamline operations.” (Solar Power World)

• New Mexico’s first community solar project goes online in Belen. (KRQE)

• EDF Power Solutions brings its 150 MW Milagro solar-plus-storage installation online in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. (news release)

• Enlight Renewable Energy secures $340 million in tax equity financing for its 290 MW Roadrunner solar-plus-storage installation under development in southern Arizona. (Solar Quarter)

NUCLEAR

• Irvine, California’s city council considers developing a ​“Plan B” for addressing 3.6 million pounds of radioactive waste at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant if a federal repository is not established. (Orange County Register)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Will the Southeast’s booming EV sector survive the end of tax credits? — Elizabeth Ouzts

• Interconnection bottleneck threatens community solar success in Illinois— Kari Lydersen