October 23, 2024

Here is the news NetZero Insider uncovered last week:

The Supreme Court turned down industry and state efforts to slap a stay on the EPA's new rules aimed at cutting carbon emissions at U.S. power plants burning fossil fuels, but left the door open for a second attempt pending a decision on the cases from the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. K Kaufmann broke the news on that.

K also broke the news on the Department of Energy, which announced almost $2 billion in new funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act aimed at improving grid reliability and resilience. The latest round of Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships awards will go to 38 projects across 42 states and the District of Columbia.

The Berkeley Lab announced in this year’s edition of its annual report on the sector that utility-scale solar construction reached record levels across the U.S. last year, as a total of 18.5 GWAC was brought online. The report predicts that 2024 will be another record year, with more than 35 GW of utility-scale solar and distributed commercial or residential solar installed. John Cropley dove into the report.

Also federally, FERC received more than 60 comments on its advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on dynamic line ratings, with utilities and grid operators urging caution on new requirements while state regulators, consumers and grid-enhancing technologies firms said they want mandates. James Downing had the details.

As for wind, the California Energy Commission is offering $43 million in grants to fund waterfront facility improvements to support the development and operation of floating offshore wind energy off the state’s coast. Ayla Burnett had the story.

Elsewhere, federal regulators completed their first-ever regional environmental analysis of future offshore wind farms that have not yet been proposed, as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s programmatic environmental impact statement looks at six wind lease areas covering nearly a half-million acres in the New York Bight. John Cropley was on top of it all.

Here is some other news we covered this week:

• Amazon Moves to Accelerate SMR Development
  

• Attentive Withdraws NY Offshore Wind Proposals
  

• Conference Speakers: NJ’s OSW Rebound Taking Hold
  

• DOE Doubles Down on Advanced Nuclear with HALEU Contracts
  

• Dominion Releases ‘All of the Above’ Integrated Resource Plan for 2024
  

• FERC Finalizes Order 1977 on Backstop Transmission Siting
  

• Grid Upgrades Challenging but Needed, OSW Supporters Say
  

• New England States Seeking Increase of North-South Tx Capacity
  

• NY Surpasses 6 GW of Distributed Solar Capacity
  

• Two Huge Solar-plus-storage Projects Planned in California
  

• US Utilities Face Scramble to Meet New Demand