Energy briefs

** Executives from a dozen U.S. power companies urge the Trump administration to roll back federal regulations on coal ash disposal and rescind recent enforcement action.

** Artificial intelligence companies pair with a Japanese investment firm to announce a sprawling data center complex with a 200 MW substation in Texas, which will be the first part of their larger Stargate project.

** Right-wing Wyoming lawmakers propose slashing $100 million of funding from a state program aimed at supporting energy innovation, including carbon capture and sequestration.

** Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signs an order aimed at accelerating clean energy targets and setting a goal of 50,000 distributed solar and battery installations by 2030.

** The U.S. Department of Energy provided Arizona State University and its partners with $11.2 million in grant funding to create a direct air capture hub in the Four Corners region that includes a site in northwestern New Mexico.

** Clearway Energy Group and Clearway Energy, Inc.  announced that it repowered its Cedro Hill wind farm in Webb County, Texas in a $269 million project. It will provide the operation with new, more efficient equipment that increased the wind farm’s capacity to 160 MW – enough electricity to power nearly 40,000 homes every year.

** A novel nuclear reactor currently under construction at the Abilene Christian University (ACU) in Texas will help generate carbon-free energy while also desalinating water, solving two problems at once, a press release said. The nuclear reactor is being built by Natura Resources, a company specializing in developing small modular reactors.

** Utility giant Duke Energy is retiring its Allen Steam Station, a coal-fired power plant near Charlotte, North Carolina, to make way for its largest battery storage system, a major step toward cleaning up the energy grid, Canary Meia reported.

** Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he wants to fast-track the construction of big power plants in Pennsylvania and offer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for projects that provide electricity to the grid and use hydrogen.

** What was once the world’s largest solar power plant of its type, the Ivanpah solar power plant near the California-Nevada border,  appears headed for closure just 11 years after opening, under pressure from cheaper green energy sources.

World

** India’s subsidy scheme for residential rooftop solar has already surpassed 850,000 installations, marking significant progress toward the goal of powering 10 million households with solar energy, according to Minister for New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi.

** An Australian mining company made headlines when it placed a $400 million order for over 100 new all-electric mining equipment assets from a Chinese manufacturer, as reported by ElectrekFortescue, an Australian mining company, purchased $400 million of mining equipment from Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, the largest single equipment export deal in the Chinese company’s history.

** Britain risks being left more vulnerable to blackouts as a political row in Norway over power exports escalates. The Norwegian government collapsed this week following a row over EU green energy laws. Experts said the collapse raised questions over Britain’s reliance on Norwegian energy imports to keep the lights on.