Energy briefs

** At least 3 million were left without electricity after Hurricane Milton hit Florida Wednesday Evening. Tornadoes killed four persons.

** Florida firefighters say there is a growing concern that the floodwaters will result in the spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles.The fires had become frequent enough that insurers, car makers, fire chiefs and politicians have all issued warnings to EV owners before the arrival of Hurricane Milton.

** Houston-area utility CenterPoint Energy announces it will add 25,000 new power poles, trim vegetation along 4,000 miles of power lines, and move 400 miles of lines underground ahead of the 2025 hurricane season.

** The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) and The Work Truck Association (NTEA) are going into battle against California over the state’s planned electric vehicle mandate. On Wednesday, October 8, the two organizations filed a civil lawsuit against the State of California in federal court, claiming that the Golden State’s proposed plans exceed its authority.

** Nearly 84,000 North Carolina customers still don’t have power after Hurricane Helene, as Duke Energy continues to work through outages.

** The developer of a Louisiana carbon pipeline and storage site considers whether to triple its size from 150 to 500 miles, including running it through parts of Arkansas and Texas.

** During an investors day talk earlier this week, GM CEO Mary Barra committed that her company would be able to make money off EVs soon, reports Reuters. Barra told investors that while the automaker was focusing on stability for its EV arm, sales for battery-powered models at the company were ramping up, reported Jalopnik.

** Honda Motor Co. is recalling close to 1.7 million vehicles due to a manufacturing issue that could make it difficult to steer the vehicles and lead to crashes. Honda reported the recall last week to government regulators, who issued the recall order on Tuesday.

 

World

** The city of Cape Town, South Africa, has started building a 7 MW solar plant that it will own and operate. It has also launched a tender for a 5 MW/8 MWh battery energy storage system to be built at the same site.

** Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) has reported that “several” solar arrays have been linked to a second wave of electronic-device explosions across the nation, but local sources have thus far only identified one damaged PV system, which they said was likely affected by external factors.

** Ten large-scale solar farms planned for New Zealand’s North and South islands are among 22 renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 3 GW that have been listed for inclusion in the government’s “one-stop shop” fast-track approvals process.