** Google agrees to pay more than $3 billion over 20 years to buy energy from two Pennsylvania hydroelectric plants, to help power its data center operations.
** A coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania that closed in 2021 will get a $3.2 billion overhaul to reopen as a natural gas plant providing power to a new AI data center and the grid.
** Quarterly volatility of natural gas futures price fell from a recent high of 81% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 69% by mid-2025.
** Maryland environmental officials dispute claims by the EPA that there are errors in the permit it issued for the US Wind project and say they will not reissue the permit as requested.
** A proposed $10 billion Delaware data center would consume nearly twice as much energy as all the homes in the state combined.
** New data reveals a Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Alabama contains 21 million cubic yards of coal ash in six ponds, and if all of its sites are in contact with groundwater, it could be “the dirtiest in the nation.”
** EV startup Rivian signs a lease for land to build its East Coast headquarters in Atlanta ahead of plans to break ground on a factory in Georgia next year.
** Analysis shows West Virginia stands to lose nearly 10,500 clean energy-related jobs by 2030 due to the repeal of federal tax credits in the Republican budget bill just as developers started building solar fields, wind farms, and battery storage facilities in the state.
World
** In 2024, France increased its cross-border electricity deliveries by 48%, from 70 terawatthours (TWh) in 2023 to 103 TWh in 2024. France’s electricity exports to Belgium and Germany increased the most, but France also exported more electricity to Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, according to data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.
** Gulf construction contract awards slumped to their lowest level in more than three years, the latest sign that low oil prices and a spending review in Saudi Arabia are affecting the sector. The number of contracts awarded in the second quarter fell to $28.4 billion, the second consecutive quarterly decline, according to KAMCO Investment Co., a Kuwait-based asset manager.
** China’s Premier Li Qiang announced construction had begun on what will be the world’s largest hydropower dam, on the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau, at an estimated cost of at least $170 billion, the official Xinhua news agency said.
** China’s exports of two critical minerals used in weapons, telecommunications and solar cells have plunged over the past three months amid a crackdown on smuggling and transshipment that has involved China’s top spy agency.
