If you had any doubt that the clean energy transition is underway in towns and cities throughout the Southeast, listening in on a recent gathering of local government leaders would change your mind.
Representatives from 38 cities and towns throughout the Southeast gathered on September 14 and 15 in Savannah for the Electrify the South Collaborative, facilitated by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and Southeast Sustainability Directors Network (SSDN) and made possible by a generous Movement Infrastructure Grant from Mosaic.
In a forthcoming blog, Dory Larsen, SACE’s Senior Electric Transportation Program Manager, will provide a breakdown of data and information from the Collaborative, but the immediate and clear takeaway from the event is that the clean energy transition is indeed accelerating in communities throughout the Southeast. The support and collective problem-solving seen between local governments during this Collaborative is a prime example of what the Clean Energy Generation movement is all about.
These Collaborative participants are on the front lines of defining and implementing climate and clean energy action plans in their communities. They are sustainability directors, town managers and city council members, elected officials, public works directors, fleet managers, finance staff, and municipal leaders in various roles. They represent a diverse range of communities — rural and urban, small towns and large cities. Some of their communities are just beginning to define their plans for transportation electrification, while others are on their way to becoming 100% Clean Energy communities. They all came to learn new strategies to electrify transportation in their fleets and in their communities. Their efforts to plan for and implement clean energy technologies are a cornerstone for creating smarter-powered towns and cities to reduce harmful climate pollution.
For two days, they identified challenges and opportunities and shared solutions and resources toward a common goal — to learn how to access and implement federal electric transportation funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). By strategizing ways to prioritize placing safe, healthy, and equitable communities front and center in present-day decisions, the city and town leaders at the Collaborative exemplified how local governments can work together to create impactful change as the Clean Energy Generation.
“Before coming to the Collaborative I didn’t know where to start. But learning about what other cities and counties are doing and what resources are available is inspiring and invigorating. Electrifying transportation is where we’re headed. Our county is just at the beginning, but now I see what can be done when we’re in a position to make those changes.”
BIL & IRA Opportunities
Stan Cross, SACE’s Electric Transportation Policy Director, once joked that “BIL and IRA” sounded like a nice older couple. In that light, BIL and IRA are wise investors unleashing historical resources into climate actions and clean energy via investment in infrastructure and our communities. These federal resources are creating opportunities to transform how the U.S. produces and consumes energy by investing in American energy supply chains, clean energy job creation, emissions reduction, and consumer energy savings.
BIL and IRA are already creating significant impacts, and there are now tangible opportunities for local governments to advance electric transportation through federal grants or tax credits. However, knowing how to apply for and prepare to implement the funding requires significant time and knowledge. The Electrify the South Collaborative was a kickoff event to help local governments best position themselves and the region to leverage federal funds and achieve electric transportation goals.
“I realize that there are far more funding and collaborative opportunities available as our City moves towards expanding our EV infrastructure.”
Federal and state government panelists shared information to equip local governments with the knowledge, tools, and technical assistance to apply directly for federal funding and to influence state formula funding planning and implementation. The information that attendees also shared through Q&A sessions and small-group conversations over the two days was equally informative and inspiring, collaborative in every sense.
Those who attended shared their needs and challenges with electrifying municipal transportation; and worked together to problem-solve solutions. Business cards and contact information were exchanged frequently, often shared with words along the lines of, “I have a resource that can help you with that,” or “I’ll share what didn’t work for us so you can avoid that.”
“As a municipality, it was great to hear that we are not alone in our struggles with transportation electrification. It was clear that most of us share more commonalities than differences when it comes to this topic, and my takeaway is that we can find solutions if we think creatively and leverage our networks.”
The peer-to-peer learning will better position the region to advance electric transportation goals, and make it more likely that rural and urban communities in the Southeast will capture a proportional share of federal investments. The recently released fourth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report, published by SACE in collaboration with Atlas Public Policy, shows that over the past 12 months, our region has accessed federal funds totaling $234 million for electric transit buses, $172 million for electric school buses, and $3 million in EV-related research and development grants, and awarded $169 million in VW Settlement funds. The total amount of federal transportation electrification funding allocated to date is $741 million, which could be dwarfed over the coming years if the region is successful at drawing down the massive amount of funding being made available through the growing list of the BIL and IRA programs.
Ongoing Collaboration and Support
Local governments that were unable to participate in Savannah are encouraged to participate in two upcoming virtual Collaborative meetings that will follow up on information shared during the September event. The first virtual meeting will be on November 30 at noon, registration information to be announced soon. SACE and SSDN will also continue to gather and share information about funding opportunities, technical assistance resources, and municipal best practices and successes.
It was invigorating and encouraging to see people rolling up their sleeves and digging into complex technology, logistics, and social issues that will make our world a better place, one community at a time. Their dedicated collaboration is an inspiring example of the Clean Energy Generation in action.
The post Electrify the South Collaborative: Cities and Towns Share Solutions to Drive Change appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Electrify the South Collaborative: Cities and Towns Share Solutions to Drive Change
Australia 943 MW Project, Bermuda Offshore Plans
Australia has approved the 943 MW Valley of the Winds Wind Farm, Bermuda plans to install an offshore wind farm with 17 turbines by 2027, and Nova Scotia proposes an ambitious $10 billion offshore wind project.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Australia has given the green light to a massive wind project. The Independent Planning Commission in New South Wales has approved ACEN Australia’s nine hundred forty-three megawatt Valley of the Winds wind farm. The project also includes a three hundred twenty megawatt battery storage system. The project will create up to four hundred construction jobs and fifty permanent positions. The investment is approximately one point six eight billion Australian dollars.
The island nation of Bermuda is making the most of its windy weather. Officials unveiled plans for an offshore wind farm starting with seventeen turbines by twenty twenty-seven. The project aims to help Bermuda reach its twenty thirty-five goal of eighty-five percent renewable energy. The project will begin with a sixty megawatt installation near the north shore. Officials hope to scale up to one hundred twenty megawatts total.
Nigel Burgess, head of regulation at Regulatory Authority Bermuda, calls offshore wind a compelling opportunity. The project will lower exposure to fuel price shocks and create space for long-term investment. Currently, Bermuda gets one hundred percent of its power from fuel burning. The project aims to promote energy independence by reducing dependence on imported fuels. The wind farm is expected to be operational by twenty thirty.
Nova Scotia has announced an ambitious offshore wind project that could cost up to ten billion dollars. Premier Tim Houston wants to license enough offshore turbines over the next ten years to produce forty gigawatts of electricity. That’s eight times more than originally planned. To put this in perspective, Nova Scotia with just over one million people requires only two point four gigawatts at peak demand. China’s offshore wind turbines were producing just under forty-two gigawatts as of last year.
The project would require hundreds of wind turbines built in water about one hundred meters deep, about twenty-five kilometers offshore. Experts say the project would actually need more than four thousand offshore turbines using current fifteen megawatt turbines. The transmission line alone is estimated to cost between five billion and ten billion dollars to connect the wind farms with the rest of the country.
The premier calls it a concept to capture the imagination of Nova Scotians. He wants federal help to cover costs, saying the excess electricity could supply twenty-seven percent of Canada’s total demand.
https://weatherguardwind.com/australia-bermuda-offshore/
Disgusting. It’s one thing that “news” in the United States has largely been replaced by incendiary opinions. But it’s even worse that so many of these opinions are so grossly ill-informed.
In its quest to move to the middle of the political spectrum, CNN has integrated a few hard-right commentator, like Jennings. Fine; I get that. But do they have to be morons?
In particular, can’t CNN do better than to refer to California as a “failed state?” If California were a nation it would be the fourth largest economy on the planet, having recently overtaken Japan.
Renewable Energy
North Carolina needs more certainty before committing to an expensive new gas plant
Despite massive uncertainty across the economy, Duke Energy is plowing ahead with its plan to build new fossil gas-fired power plants to serve data center, manufacturing, and other large customer load that may not even show up. Duke has asked the NC Utilities Commission for permission to build a combined-cycle (CC) gas plant in Person County, North Carolina, at the site of Duke’s Roxboro coal plant.
SACE has argued against the need for this gas power plant in the Certificate of Public Need and Necessity (CPCN) docket, submitting testimony to the Commission on Monday, June 9, 2025. Here’s a summary of that testimony (prepared by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc.), which explains what this all means for Duke’s billpayers, and how Duke can make changes within its control to protect customers and reduce pollution. These recommendations include:
- Not approving this new gas power plant because the risks that it will increase bills are too high. Instead, Duke should improve the processes that are holding back lower-cost renewables and storage, then use renewables and storage to meet new load.
- Instead of approving this specific gas plant, the Commission should order Duke to use an all-source procurement process to determine a portfolio of flexible assets that can meet the utility’s needs based on real-world costs.
- In the event the Commission approves this gas plant, it should protect customers from high bills due to volatile gas prices by instituting a fuel cost sharing mechanism for the fuel costs spent to run this plant.
Duke Doesn’t Need this Risky Gas Power Plant
Duke’s claim that it needs this fossil gas power plant is based on outdated analysis. In this CPCN docket, Duke relies on its 2023 Carbon Plan Integrated Resource Plan (CPIRP) modeling and the CPIRP supplemental update and analysis filed in January 2024. The world has changed dramatically since then, and it is important that the Commission review the latest information before approving expenditures that will impact customer bills for decades.
Duke’s load forecast – once based on steady, predictable growth – is now subject to significant uncertainty as 1) data center developers look around the country for the best deal and the fastest interconnection to the grid and 2) manufacturers announce projects and then pull back as political uncertainty changes the economics of those projects. Under Duke’s current rate structure, prospective companies and site developers do not need to commit much money to become part of Duke’s load forecast. They have very little “skin in the game,” and Duke currently does not have policies in place to change this. If the Commission allows Duke to build an expensive fossil gas plant for load that doesn’t materialize, Duke’s remaining customers will be on the hook to pay for it.
Duke’s own load forecast updates since 2023 show that there are wild swings in its predictions. In the Spring of 2023, Duke anticipated 8 new large load projects during its 10-year planning forecast period, requiring an average of 169 MW each. Then for Fall 2023 (the supplemental update filed in January 2024), Duke anticipated 35 projects requiring an average of 111 MW each. In Summer 2024, Duke changed its forecast again, projecting 39 projects requiring an average of only 103 MW. And in May 2025, Duke filed an update showing a reduction in the number of projects back down to 35 but a dramatic increase in average need – back up to 169 MW. Duke’s forecasts will continue to show swings up and down – both in the number of projects and megawatts – until Duke has policies in place that require more commitment from the companies that knock on its door requesting service. Duke also has not published information regarding the location of these loads – the latest forecast applies to all of Duke Energy in both North and South Carolina.
It is also important to know that that this gas plant isn’t needed to meet growing load from existing customers or to replace retiring coal plants (according to Duke’s own testimony). This gas plant is being justified by new manufacturing and data centers claiming they will be operating somewhere in Duke Energy Progress or Duke Energy Carolinas territory in North or South Carolina.
Even if the load shows up, this plant won’t be needed for long
Even Duke admits that it doesn’t “need” this fossil gas power plant for very long. These kinds of power plants, combined-cycle plants, are typically used about 80% of the time, i.e. they are “baseload” power plants. But even absent federal carbon regulations, Duke expects this power plant’s usage to decline significantly throughout its 35-year lifetime (from 80% in 2030 decreasing to 46% by 2040 and only 13% by 2050 onwards). As cheaper renewables and storage with zero fuel costs are brought online, they will displace this plant. Duke is proposing to build a giant power plant that will very quickly run less and less – but Duke’s customers will continue to pay for it until 2065—15 years past a state law requiring Duke’s generation fleet to be carbon neutral. This represents a significant change in how power plants are built and run, and this is not in the best interest of Duke’s billpayers. To add insult to injury, Duke hasn’t even procured all of the equipment needed to build this plant, so the costs could skyrocket even more than they already have since last year’s carbon plan proceeding.
Renewables are flexible, would protect customers, and would reduce pollution
Duke’s model only chose a gas plant to meet this capacity need because of limits Duke imposed on the model. Duke claims it cannot interconnect renewables and storage fast enough to meet this capacity need, but the reasons it cannot interconnect those resources faster are all within Duke’s control. As Synapse recommends, Duke needs to update its processes that are holding back renewables and storage from serving customers with low-cost and low-risk resources. These processes include interconnection and transmission planning.
SACE has been advocating for improvements to these processes for years, and Duke has made changes to both its interconnection process and transmission planning. Duke was one of the first utilities in the Southeast to implement cluster studies in its interconnection process, and it is in the midst of the first scenario-based transmission planning exercise in the region. But is there evidence that these updates have helped if Duke continues to limit solar and storage in its future resource modeling? Given the much quicker interconnection process recently demonstrated in Texas, this raises the question of how hard Duke is really trying to streamline renewables interconnection.
Modular, flexible resources such as wind, solar, and energy storage can be adjusted in quantity based on market conditions. As our testimony from Synapse states, “This modularity, combined with the fact that solar and wind have zero exposure to fuel price volatility once they are constructed, makes these resources particularly valuable in the face of trade tariff uncertainty.”
The bottom line is that the Commission needs a lot more certainty about load growth and costs before committing Duke’s billpayers to any type of large fossil gas power plant. We simply do not have that now.
The post North Carolina needs more certainty before committing to an expensive new gas plant appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
North Carolina needs more certainty before committing to an expensive new gas plant
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