Good morning! We start the day with bad news for a major transmission project. The Trump administration canceled a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express, which was supposed to carry wind and solar power east from the Great Plains.
Next up, Julian Spector covers the demise of Powin and what it means for its battery storage systems around the globe. And in Maine, utility regulators are scrambling to build clean energy projects before federal tax credits expire, Sarah Shemkus reports.
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President Trump signs an executive order to speed permitting for data centers and related power generation on federal land, promoting fossil fuel, advanced nuclear, and geothermal as power options but ignoring wind and solar. (E&E News)
Supply chain issues, tariff uncertainty, and the unreliability of federal financing for energy projects are all making it harder to build power generation and setting the U.S. up for higher energy prices. (Heatmap)
Federal energy regulators approve temporary fast-tracked interconnection processes proposed by grid operators MISO and SPP. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Tesla reports a 16% decline in revenue in the second quarter, and the company’s CFO says the end of EV tax credits and looming tariffs will continue to hurt business. (CNBC)
Tesla also says it has started producing a more affordable EV model that it’s promised for years. (Axios)
Volkswagen’s battery arm PowerCo will pay solid-state battery developer QuantumScape $130.7 million to expand their partnership — a vote of confidence in the battery technology QuantumScape has been working on for 15 years. (Axios)
OFFSHORE WIND
Equinor reports a $995 million impairment on its Empire Wind project, blaming the revocation of tax credits that would’ve allowed for more offshore wind development off New York. (Reuters)
Iberdrola says the tax credit rollback will have little effect on its under-construction offshore wind projects, and that its New England Wind 1 could still access tax credits even though it hasn’t started construction. (E&E News)
NUCLEAR
Oklo and fracking firm Liberty Energy announce a partnership that proposes Liberty provide gas generation to data centers in the near term, with Oklo’s advanced nuclear reactors to replace the fossil fuel later on. (Power)
GEOTHERMAL
Advanced geothermal startup Quaise Energy says it’s drilled to a depth of 100 meters using its millimeter wave technology, marking a step toward accessing hotter rock deep underground. (news release)
SOLAR
Foreign entity of concern provisions affecting tax credits and a new federal trade investigation will both make it even harder for U.S. solar panel manufacturers to source solar cells. (Latitude Media)
COAL
The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects coal power generation to temporarily increase this year before falling again in 2026 as more plants retire. (EIA)
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