An Illinois bill that started as a protection for solar-powered doorbells has developed into comprehensive proposed legislation to break down the barriers confronting rural electric cooperative members seeking to install solar.  Many residents and solar developers say the measure is sorely needed, since electric cooperative members often face arbitrary and changing interconnection, compensation and liability policies from the cooperatives.  Illinois HB5315, called a “Solar Bill of Rights” and introduced Feb. 29, would require the state’s more than 50 cooperatives and municipal utili ..read more

A Minnesota company is among a growing number of startups nationwide hoping to help customers replace diesel and natural gas with ammonia in industrial applications. “It’s not as big of a leap as you might think to retool and change an engine from running diesel to ammonia,” said Aza Power co-founder and CEO Seamus Kane. The company is developing conversion kits that allow diesel engine owners to switch their energy source to ammonia and reduce their carbon emissions.   Ammonia is a pairing of hydrogen and nitrogen, which means it doesn’t emit carbon when burned. Its production is t ..read more

The oil and gas industry in North Dakota wants more carbon but the company behind a giant carbon capture project says it remains committed to underground storage.  North Dakota’s oil industry sees strong potential in using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery — pumping gas underground to force oil toward a drilled well.  “We don’t have any customers today approaching us about enhanced oil recovery,” Lee Blank, CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions, told the North Dakota Monitor in an interview.  The Summit plan is to store carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants in undergroun ..read more

Carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration projects would face significant new scrutiny and regulations under proposed legislation introduced this week in Illinois. Advocates who helped draft the proposal (SB 3930, HB 5814) say it is crucial to institute standards and protections, as multiple companies seek to sequester carbon in Illinois’ Mt. Simon sandstone geology and reap lucrative federal tax credits. The legislation was formally introduced Monday. State lawmakers held a hearing earlier this month on separate bills (HB 4835, SB 3441) that would place a moratorium on carbon dioxide pipelin ..read more

Thanks to a new infusion of state funding, three projects benefiting traditionally under-resourced Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in the greater Chicago area have taken one important step closer to fruition.  Last week, the Illinois Climate Bank unanimously passed a resolution to authorize loan funds of up to $1.6 million for three community-based solar projects owned by Green Energy Justice Cooperative, launched in 2022 by Blacks in Green (BIG). This increases the total funding to $2.9 million for GEJC’s community solar projects, a portion of which is privately funded.  Th ..read more

At 1.5 megawatts, the battery destined for a college campus near Petersburg, Virginia, might not be the mightiest in Dominion Energy’s growing storage fleet. But don’t underestimate its power and reach. In addition to providing backup power for Virginia State University’s main sports and entertainment venue, it will serve as a hands-on laboratory and research project for engineering students and faculty at the historically Black university. “This is so exciting,” said Dawit Haile, dean of VSU’s College of Engineering and Technology. “Our students don’t know the challenges we are having to sav ..read more

Utilities across the U.S. Southeast are claiming that a massive buildout of data centers and factories will force them to construct gigawatts of new fossil gas-fired power plants over the coming decade — a fleet large enough and dirty enough to potentially put U.S. climate goals out of reach. However, critics of these plans say that utilities have cleaner and cheaper alternatives to reliably manage surging new power demand, and that state utility regulators in Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee need to require them to explore those options. For the moment, though, these utili ..read more

A couple in Sugar Grove, Illinois, are hoping that a village board meeting on April 16 will mean a victory for solar energy in their town of 9,000 people nestled amid farms and forest preserves west of Chicago. And solar advocates say it is an example of the need for a “Solar Rights” bill to pass the legislature, ensuring that municipalities like Sugar Grove can’t unreasonably limit residents’ ability to install rooftop solar.   Becky Brocker and Mike Rayburn are pushing the Sugar Grove village board of trustees to remove a line in the municipal zoning code that bans solar panels on ..read more

Versions of this story were published by Floodlight, Energy News Network and the Ohio Capital Journal.  A surge in FirstEnergy political spending ahead of the utility’s push to secure a legislative bailout for its nuclear power plants included a $1 million dark money contribution to support the campaign of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s eventual running mate. The previously unreported gift linked to Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s 2017 primary bid was revealed as part of a raft of documents obtained under Ohio’s public records law by a coalition of news organizations, including Floodlight, Energy News Ne ..read more

The electric vehicle transition in North Carolina is well on its way, with new factories announced, charging stations rising up, and some 85,000 plug-ins now on state roads, exceeding a goal set by Gov. Roy Cooper to help combat climate change. Yet for all their importance, electric vehicles won’t zero out carbon pollution from the transportation sector on their own. Doing so, experts warn, also requires reducing dependence on automobiles overall — no matter their source of fuel. In North Carolina, it’s a task not easily said and even harder to do.  The state’s current goal for reducing ..read more