TRANSITION: Orlando, Florida’s municipal utility moves to build two new solar facilities, add battery storage and jettison 90% of its fossil fuel plants, but customers push back against plans to charge more for power during peak times and to decrease what it pays for rooftop solar. (Orlando Sentinel)

SOLAR: 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

OIL & GAS: Tennessee residents and environmental groups protest in Nashville against the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to build a wave of natural gas-fired power plants across the Southeast. (Tennessean, WZTV)

CLEAN ENERGY: 

  • The Inflation Reduction Act continues to fuel clean energy investment two years after its passage, with a sodium battery plant in North Carolina and a factory building electric sports cars in Virginia among recent project announcements driven by the law’s tax incentives. (Canary Media)
  • A renewable energy enthusiast in Virginia uses solar panels, solar roof shingles, a wind turbine, a hydrogen fuel cell and battery storage to power his home and a detached office. (Yale Climate Connections)

STORAGE: A company that makes iron-air renewable batteries receives a $150 million federal grant for its new factory in West Virginia. (WV Metro News)

EFFICIENCY: West Virginia officials ask for public feedback on a planned rebate program for home climate control and energy efficiency improvements. (WV Metro News)

NUCLEAR: A Republican Congress member introduces legislation to expand nuclear power and suggests adding two small modular nuclear reactors at an existing Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Alabama. (WHNT)

PIPELINES: Texas residents are allowed to return home after a multi-day pipeline fire went out and an evacuation order was lifted. (Houston Chronicle)

COMMENTARY: Duke Energy’s North Carolina customers are enjoying a short-term rate reduction, but the utility’s ongoing reliance on natural gas over renewables ultimately will leave it susceptible to fuel markets’ unpredictable price swings, writes an environmental advocate. (Greensboro News & Record)

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Mason has worked as a journalist since 2001, covering Appalachian communities and the issues that affect them. He compiles the Southeast Energy News digest. Mason previously worked as a wildlife biologist before moving into journalism by freelancing at Coast Weekly in Monterey, California, before taking an internship in 2001 at High Country News. He wrote for the Enterprise Mountaineer in western North Carolina and the Roanoke Times in western Virginia before going freelance in 2012. His work has appeared in Southerly, Daily Yonder, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, WVPB’s Inside Appalachia and elsewhere. Mason was born and raised in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and now lives with his family and a small herd of goats in Floyd County, Virginia.