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Coal-to-Clean Energy Hubs leverage Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to repurpose mine lands with microgrids, advanced nuclear, carbon capture, and rare earth processing, boosting energy security, jobs, and grid modernization.

Key Points

They are federal projects converting coal communities and mine lands into clean energy hubs, repurposing infrastructure.

✅ DOE demos on mine lands: microgrids, nuclear, carbon capture.

✅ Funding from BIL, CHIPS and IRA targets energy communities.

✅ Rare earths from coal waste bolster EV supply chains.

The Biden administration is channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in clean energy funding from recent legislation into its efforts to turn coal communities into clean energy hubs, the White House said.

The administration gave an update on its push across agencies to kick-start projects nationwide with funding Congress approved during Biden’s first two years in office. The effort includes $450 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that the Department of Energy will allocate to an array of new clean energy demonstration projects on former mine lands.

“These projects could focus on a range of technologies from microgrids to advanced nuclear to power plans with carbon capture,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on a call with reporters Monday. “They’ll prove out the potential to reactivate or repurpose existing infrastructure like transmission lines and substations across an aging U.S. power grid, and these projects could spur new economic development in these communities.”

Among the projects the White House highlighted, it said $16 million from the infrastructure law will go to the University of North Dakota and West Virginia University to create design studies for the first-ever full-scale refinery facility in the U.S. that could extract and separate rare earth elements and minerals from coal mine waste streams. The materials are critical for electric vehicle-battery components that are currently heavily sourced from outside the U.S.

“Those efforts will pave the way toward building a first of its kind facility that produces essential materials for solar panels, wind turbines, EVs and more while cleaning up polluted land and water and creating good-paying jobs for local workers,” Granholm said.

Biden created an interagency working group focused on revitalizing coal-power communities through federal investments when he took office. In 2021, the group selected 25 priority areas ranging from West Virginia to Wyoming to focus on development, as high natural gas prices strengthened the case for clean electricity. There are nearly 18,000 identified mine sites across 1.5 million acres in the United States, according to the White House.

The massive effort fits into a broader Biden administration push to both fight climate change and support communities that have lost economic activity during a transition away from fossil fuel sources such as coal. While Biden’s most ambitious clean energy plans fell flat in Congress in the face of opposition from Republicans and some Democrats after the previous administration’s power plant overhaul, three major laws still unlocked funding for his administration to deploy.

Many of the initiatives are made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, even without a clean electricity standard on the books. The task force aims to make sure communities most affected by the changing energy landscape are taking maximum advantage of the federal benefits.

“Those new and expanded operations are coming to energy communities and creating good paying jobs,” Biden’s senior advisor for clean energy innovation and implementation John Podesta said on the call. “These laws can provide substantial federal support to energy communities like capping abandoned oil and gas wells, extracting critical minerals, building battery factories and launching demonstration projects in carbon capture or green hydrogen.”

The administration touted the potential benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill passed by Democrats to spur clean energy investments last year, even as early assessments show mixed results to date. At the time, U.S. consumers were dealing with decades-high inflation fueled in part by an energy crisis and high gas prices that drove debate — a point Republicans emphasized as the plan moved through Congress.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the Inflation Reduction Act aims to both “lower the deficit, as well as promote our energy security, lowering energy costs for consumers and combatting climate change.”

“As the Treasury works to implement the law, we’re focused on ensuring that all Americans benefit from the growth of the clean energy economy, particularly those who live in communities that have been dependent on the energy sector for job for a long time,” Adeyemo told reporters. “Economic growth and productivity are higher when all communities are able to reach their full potential.”

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BC Hydro Asset Management Audit confirms disciplined oversight of dams, generators, power lines, substations, and transformers, with robust lifecycle planning, reliability metrics, and capital investment sustaining aging infrastructure and near full-capacity performance.

Key Points

Audit confirming BC Hydro's asset governance and lifecycle planning, ensuring safe, reliable grid infrastructure.

✅ $25B in assets; many facilities operating near full capacity.

✅ 80% of assets are dams, generators, lines, poles, substations, transformers.

✅ $2.5B invested in renewal, repair, and replacement in fiscal 2018.

A report by B.C.’s auditor-general says B.C. Hydro is doing a good job managing the province’s dams, generating stations and power lines, including storm response during severe weather events.

Carol Bellringer says in the audit that B.C. Hydro’s assets are valued at more than $25 billion and even though some generating facilities are more than 85 years old they continue to operate near full-capacity and can accommodate holiday demand peaks when needed.

The report says about 80 per cent of Hydro’s assets are dams, generators, power lines, poles, substations and transformers that are used to provide electrical service to B.C., where residential electricity use shifted during the pandemic.

The audit says Hydro invested almost $2.5 billion to renew, repair or replace the assets it manages during the last fiscal year, ending March 31, 2018, and, in a broader context, bill relief has been offered to only part of the province.

Bellringer’s audit doesn’t examine the $10.7 billion Site C dam project, which is currently under construction in northeast B.C. and not slated for completion until 2024.

She says the audit examined whether B.C. Hydro has the information, practices, processes and systems needed to support good asset management, at a time when other utilities are dealing with pandemic impacts on operations.

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Energy Storage for Microgrids enables renewables integration via ESS, boosting resilience and reliability while supporting solar PV and wind, innovative financing, and business models, with strong growth forecast across Asia-Pacific and North America.

Key Points

Systems that store energy in microgrids to integrate renewables, boost resilience, and optimize distributed power.

✅ Integrates solar PV and wind with stable, dispatchable output

✅ Reduces costs via new financing and service business models

✅ Expands reliable power for remote, grid-constrained regions

A new report from Navigant Research examines the global market for energy storage for microgrids (ESMG), providing an analysis of trends and market dynamics in the context of the evolving digital grid landscape, with forecasts for capacity and revenue that extend through 2026.

Interest in energy storage-enabled microgrids is growing alongside an increase in solar PV and wind deployments. Although not required for microgrids to operate, energy storage systems (ESSs) have emerged as an increasingly valuable component of distributed energy networks, including virtual power plants that coordinate distributed assets, because of their ability to effectively integrate renewable generation.

“There are several key drivers resulting in the growth of energy storage-enabled microgrids globally, including the desire to improve the resilience of power supply both for individual customers and the entire grid, the need to expand reliable electricity service to new areas, rising electricity prices, and innovations in business models and financing,” says Alex Eller, research analyst with Navigant Research. “Innovations in business models and financing will likely play a key role in the expansion of the ESMG market during the coming years.”

One example of microgrid deployment for resilience is the SDG&E microgrid in Ramona built to help communities prepare for peak wildfire season.

According to the report, the most successful companies in this industry will be those that can unlock the potential of new business models to reduce the risk and upfront costs to customers. This is particularly true in Asia Pacific and North America, which are projected to be the largest regional markets for new ESMG capacity by far, a trend underscored by California's push for grid-scale batteries to stabilize the grid.

The report, “Market Data: Energy Storage for Microgrids,” outlines the key market drivers and barriers within the global ESMG market. The study provides an analysis of specific trends, including evolving grid edge trends, and market dynamics for each major world region to illustrate how different markets are taking shape. Global ESMG forecasts for capacity and revenue, segmented by region, technology, and market segment, extend through 2026. The report also briefly examines the major technology issues related to ESSs for microgrids.

Google made energy storage news recently when its parent company Alphabet announced it is hoping to revolutionize renewable energy storage using vats of salt and antifreeze. Alphabet’s secretive research lab, simply named “X,” is developing a system for storing renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. The project, named “Malta,” is hoping its energy storage systems “has the potential to last longer than lithium-ion batteries and compete on price with new hydroelectric plants and other existing clean energy storage methods, according to X executives and researchers,” reports Bloomberg.

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New England Clean Energy Connect advances despite court delays, installing steel poles on a Maine corridor for Canadian hydropower, while legal challenges seek environmental review; permits, jobs, and grid upgrades drive the renewable transmission project.

Key Points

An HV line in Maine delivering 1,200 MW of Canadian hydropower to New England to cut emissions and stabilize costs.

✅ Appeals court pauses 53-mile new section; upgrades continue

✅ 1,200 MW hydropower aims to cut emissions, stabilize rates

✅ Permits issued; environmental review litigation ongoing

Construction on part of a $1 billion electricity transmission corridor through sparsely populated woods in western Maine is on hold because of legal action, echoing Clean Line's Iowa withdrawal amid court uncertainty, but that doesn't mean all building has been halted.

Workers installed the first of 829 steel poles Tuesday on a widened portion of the existing corridor that is part of the project near The Forks, as the groundwork is laid for the 145-mile ( 230-kilometre ) New England Clean Energy Connect, a project central to Maine's debate over the 145-mile line moving forward.

The work is getting started even though the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delayed construction of a new 53-mile ( 85-kilometre ) section.

Three conservation groups are seeking an injunction to delay the project while they sue to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a more rigorous environmental review.

In western Maine, workers already have staged heavy equipment and timber “mats” that will be used to prevent the equipment from damaging the ground. About 275 Maine workers already have been hired, and more would be hired if not for the litigation, officials said.

“This project has always promised to provide an economic boost to Maine’s economy, and we are already seeing those benefits take shape," Thorn Dickinson, CEO of the New England Clean Energy Connect, said Tuesday.

The electricity transmission line would provide a conduit for up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower, reducing greenhouse emissions and stabilizing energy costs in New England as states pursue Connecticut's market overhaul to improve market design, supporters say.

The project, which would be fully funded by Massachusetts ratepayers to meet the state's clean energy goals after New Hampshire rejected a Quebec-Massachusetts proposal elsewhere, calls for construction of a high-voltage power line from Mount Beattie Township on the Canadian border to the regional power grid in Lewiston, Maine.

Critics have been trying to stop the project, reflecting clashes over New Hampshire hydropower in the region, saying it would destroy wilderness in western Maine. They also say that the environmental benefits of the project have been overstated.

In addition to the lawsuit, opponents have submitted petitions seeking to have a statewide vote, even as a Maine court ruling on Hydro-Quebec exports has reshaped the legal landscape.

Sandi Howard, a leading opponent of the project, said the decision by the company to proceed showed “disdain for everyday Mainers” by ignoring permit appeals and ongoing litigation.

“For years, CMP has pushed the false narrative that their unpopular and destructive project is a ‘done deal’ to bully Mainers into submission on this for-profit project. But to be clear, we won’t stop until Maine voters (their customers), have the chance to vote,” said Howard, who led the referendum petition drive for the No CMP Corridor PAC.

The project has received permits from the Army Corps, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Land Use Planning Commission and Maine Public Utilities Commission.

The final approval came in the form of a presidential permit issued last month from the U.S. Department of Energy, providing green light for the interconnect at the Canadian border, even as customer backlash to utility acquisitions elsewhere underscores public scrutiny.

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AP1000 Refueling Outage Record showcases Westinghouse nuclear power excellence as Sanmen Unit 2 completes its first reactor refueling in 28.14 days, highlighting safety, reliability, outage optimization, and economic efficiency in China.

Key Points

It is the 28.14-day initial refueling at Sanmen Unit 2, a global benchmark achieved with Westinghouse AP1000 technology.

✅ 28.14-day first refueling at Sanmen Unit 2 sets global benchmark

✅ AP1000 design simplifies systems, improves safety and reliability

✅ Outage optimization by Westinghouse and CNNC accelerates schedules

Westinghouse Electric Company China operations today announced that Sanmen Unit 2, one of the world's first AP1000® nuclear power plants, has set a new refueling outage record in the global nuclear power industry, completing its initial outage in 28.14 days.

"Our innovative AP1000 technology allows for simplified systems and significantly reduces the amount of equipment, while improving the safety, reliability and economic efficiency of this nuclear power plant, reflecting global nuclear milestones reached recently," said Gavin Liu, president of the Westinghouse Asia Operating Plant Services Business. "We are delighted to see the first refueling outage for Sanmen Unit 2 was completed in less than 30 days. This is a great achievement for Sanmen Nuclear Power Company and further demonstrates the outstanding performance of AP1000 design."

All four units of the AP1000 nuclear power plants in China have completed their first refueling outages in the past 18 months, aligning with China's nuclear energy development momentum across the sector.  The duration of each subsequent outage has fallen significantly - from 46.66 days on the first outage to 28.14 days on Sanmen Unit 2.

"During the first AP1000 refueling outage at the Sanmen site in December 2019, a Westinghouse team of experts worked side-by-side with the Sanmen outage team to partner on outage optimization, and immediately set a new standard for a first-of-a-kind outage, while major refurbishments like the Bruce refurbishment moved forward elsewhere," said Miao Yamin, chairman of CNNC Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Limited. "Lessons learned were openly exchanged between our teams on each subsequent outage, which has built to this impressive achievement."

Westinghouse provided urgent technical support on critical issues during the outage, as international programs such as Barakah Unit 1 achieved key milestones, to help ensure that work was carried out on schedule with no impact to critical path.

In addition to the four AP1000 units in China, two units are under construction at the Vogtle expansion near Waynesboro, Georgia, USA.

Separately, in the United States, a new reactor startup underscored renewed momentum in nuclear generation this year.

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Ford Electric Transit is an all electric cargo van for US and Canada, launching 2021, with 4G LTE hotspot, fleet telematics, GPS tracking, and driver assistance safety tech; battery, range, and performance specs TBD.

Key Points

An all electric cargo van with fleet telematics, 4G LTE, and driver assistance features for US and Canada.

✅ 4G LTE hotspot, live GPS tracking, and diagnostics

✅ Fleet telematics and management tools for operations

✅ Driver assistance: AEB, lane keeping, and collision warning

Ford is making an all-electric version of its popular Transit cargo van for the US and Canadian markets, slated to be released in 2021, aligning with Ford’s EV manufacturing plans to scale production across North America. The company did not share any specifics about the van’s battery pack size, estimated range, or performance characteristics. Ford previously announced an electric Transit for the European market in 2019.

The new cargo van will come equipped with a 4G LTE hotspot and will be outfitted with a number of tech features designed for fleet managers, like live GPS tracking and diagnostics, mirroring moves by Volvo’s electric trucks aimed at connected operations. The electric Transit van will also be equipped with a number of Ford’s safety and driver assistance features, like collision warning and assist, automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, and automatic lane-keeping.

Ford said it didn’t have any news to share about an electric version of its Transit passenger van “at this time,” even as the market reaches an EV inflection point for adoption.

Ford’s Transit van is the bestselling cargo van in the US, though it has seen increased competition over the last few years from Mercedes-Benz, which recently refreshed its popular Sprinter van, while others pursue electrified freight like Tesla’s electric truck plans that expand options.

Mercedes-Benz has already unveiled an electric version of the Sprinter, which comes in two configurations, targeting delivery networks where UPS’s Tesla Semi orders signal growing demand. There’s a version with a 55kWh battery pack that can travel 168 kilometers (104 miles) on a full charge, and has a payload capacity of 891 kilograms (1,964 pounds). Mercedes-Benz is making a version with a smaller 41kWh battery pack that goes 115 kilometers (72 miles), but which can carry up to 1,045 (2,304 pounds). Both versions come with 10.5 cubic meters (370.8 cubic feet) of storage space.

Mercedes-Benz also announced the EQV concept a year ago, which is an electric van aimed at slightly more everyday use, reflecting broader people-moving trends as electric bus adoption faces hurdles worldwide. The company touted more promising specs with the slightly smaller EQV, saying it will get around 249 miles out of a 100kWh battery pack. Oh, and it has 200 horsepower on offer and will be equipped with the company’s MBUX infotainment system.

Another player in the space is EV startup Rivian, which will build 100,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon over the next few years. Ford has invested $500 million in Rivian, and the startup is helping build a luxury electric SUV for the automotive giant’s Lincoln brand, though the two van projects don’t seem to be related, as Ford and others also boost gas-electric hybrid strategies in the US. Ford is also collaborating with Volkswagen on commercial vans after the two companies formed a global alliance early last year.

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