7 May 2025

STORAGE

• The Southern Co. agrees to install an 80 kW iron-salt long-duration battery at a demonstration project in Alabama, marking the crucial first major utility contract for a startup in a storage industry that’s notoriously difficult for anything other than lithium-ion battery designs. (Canary Media)
• Form Energy produces its first four iron-air batteries at its new West Virginia factory for an energy company in Minnesota, with orders from Dominion Energy in Virginia and Georgia Power to follow. (Intelligencer)
• A Shell subsidiary launches a virtual power plant program in Texas amid claims it will outdo a similar program operated by Tesla. (CleanTechnica)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• EV maker Rivian still plans to begin construction of a Georgia factory next year despite its exposure to likely cost increases from Trump’s tariffs, particularly via its use of battery cells from South Korea. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• The EV industry has announced several multi-billion dollar manufacturing projects in North Carolina, but the Trump administration’s attacks on government support are causing uncertainty. (Spectrum News)

RENEWABLES

• A new study finds restrictions on wind and solar projects that Texas lawmakers are considering could increase wholesale power prices by 14% over the next decade and cause capacity shortfalls during extreme weather events. (Utility Dive)
• Largely Republican-led Southern states have seen the country’s biggest percentage increases in wind, solar, and geothermal energy, but a new report finds Trump’s attacks on clean energy have led to the cancellation of nearly $8 billion in investments. (Floodlight)

SOLAR

• About 100 Louisiana residents attend a community forum to oppose NextEra’s proposed 175 MW solar farm, arguing it would threaten the agricultural industry and local quality of life. (Plaquemine Post South)

UTILITIES

• Georgia Power stymies clean energy advocates and regulatory veterans by failing to detail plans for how it will obtain 95% of the 8,200 MW it projects it will need by 2031. (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)

GRID

• A Texas county board approves a tax abatement that clears the way for the world’s first 1 GW cryptocurrency mine, part of the industry’s mass migration to the state for its cheap power, deregulated power grid, and tax incentives. (The Nation)
• Energy analytics firm Enverus identifies Texas’ deregulated market and standalone grid as having one of the shortest interconnection queue times in the U.S. (Forbes)
• A developer proposes plans for a 20-building, 1.2 GW data center campus in Georgia that would require more power than one of Plant Vogtle’s nuclear reactors. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Trump administration announces it will fast-track expansion of an Alabama coal mine to develop “critical mineral” infrastructure, although almost all of the coal produced there will be exported for foreign steelmaking markets. (Inside Climate News)
• Virginia coal miners at the largest underground mine in the state sue their former employer for laying off 140 workers in late April without providing the legally required advance notice. (Cardinal News)

COMMENTARY

• Texas officials should reverse a 2019 law that blocks new entrants from the state’s transmission market, allowing businesses to compete and make the grid more resilient at a lower cost, writes the state director of Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation. (Utility Dive)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Prisma Photonics’ technology utilizes existing fiber-optic cables to detect disruptions along high-voltage transmission lines, helping utilities avoid the timely, expensive task of building sensors from scratch, Jeff St. John reports.
• New Jersey’s attorney general tells Clare Fieseler that he is participating in the 17-state lawsuit against President Trump’s offshore wind actions because the executive order is unlawful, unconstitutional, and “just makes no sense.”