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At 1.5 megawatts, the battery destined for a college campus near Petersburg, Virginia, might not be the mightiest in Dominion Energy’s growing storage fleet.
But don’t underestimate its power and reach.
In addition to providing backup power for Virginia State University’s main sports and entertainment venue, it will serve as a hands-on laboratory and research project for engineering students and faculty at the historically Black university.
“This is so exciting,” said Dawit Haile, dean of VSU’s College of Engineering and Technology. “Our students don’t know the challenges we are having to save energy when you need it later. Storage is the missing piece.”
It isn’t the first time the 4,000-student university has collaborated with the state’s biggest utility. For several years, Dominion has lined up professionals to teach students enrolled in a specialized power and energy curriculum.
That relationship prompted Haile to nudge Dominion when he found out the utility was seeking sites to test metal-hydrogen battery technology instead of a more commonplace lithium-ion model. The appeal of metal-hydrogen, a standard in the aerospace industry, is that the materials are longer-lasting and much slower to discharge.
“We were actually looking for a university so we could pull in the learning aspect,” said Dominion’s Ellen Jackson, program manager for the pilot project. “VSU really wants this to be a visible part of their campus.”
Utility regulators are now reviewing the proposal, which a hearing examiner with the State Corporation Commission has already recommended for approval. If greenlighted, it is expected to be operational by the end of 2027.
“Cost for the whole kit and caboodle is $14.4 million,” Jackson said, referencing the architectural design, construction and installation of a final product with a footprint that will likely include more than two dozen containers measuring 11 feet by 9 feet.
Haile, who has taught at VSU for 27 years, is eager for students to dive into lessons about battery configuration, building and maintenance. Collected data will help them assess efficiency, longevity and operational costs.
“So many of us take it for granted that energy powering our homes will be there, and we don’t think about the source,” he said. “Any opportunity we get to help students learn more about this profession, it’s a plus.”
The VSU pilot project is a small slice of the volume of battery storage the General Assembly expects Dominion to meet to comply with the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
By next year, that number needs to reach 250 MW. Targets are slated to rise to 1,200 MW by 2030 and then more than double to 2,700 MW by 2035. Dominion is aiming for 65% of the battery projects to be company-owned and the remainder to be power purchase agreements with third-party owners.
“We’re well on our way to meeting that first target,” said Brandon Martin, who manages a business development team that oversees Dominion’s battery projects. “We’ve seen a lot of pricing volatility, but some of that will start to work its way out.”
Thus far, Dominion has petitioned the State Corporation Commission for a total of 180 MW of battery storage projects. Of those, 98 MW are company-owned and the remaining 82 MW have third-party owners with power purchase agreements.
The largest one that regulators have approved is at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County.
Once completed in late 2026, it will generate up to 100 MW of solar energy and store up to 50 MW of power, enough clean energy to electrify more than 37,000 Virginia homes at peak output. Dominion broke ground on that project last August.
“In the big picture, battery storage might be in its infancy, but it’s the unsung hero of the renewable energy profile,” Martin said. “It’s critical to be able to store and discharge when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.”
Meanwhile, the 1.5 MW initiative for VSU is one of three non-lithium-ion battery projects — totaling about 10.5 MW — under review by regulators. Other pioneering projects in the mix are a 5 MW iron-air battery and a 4 MW zinc-hybrid battery that Dominion plans to install at the gas-fired Darbytown Power Station in Henrico County, near Richmond.
If approved, construction on the pair of Darbytown pilots would be operational by late 2026.
Batteries aren’t a one-size-fits-all technology, said Martin, adding that smaller projects are geared for the distribution side of electron delivery.
“Trying out nascent technologies is going to be critical for future deployment,” he said. “Utilities need to know if they’ll perform as anticipated.”
Interim energy storage targets spelled out in the Clean Economy Act allow the utility to innovate with a variety of technologies before scaling up.
The advantages of experimenting with resources other than lithium is the extended discharge time, availability and durability, Martin said. For instance, an iron-air battery can discharge power for up to 100 hours. While zinc-hybrid batteries have roughly the same discharge time as a lithium-ion model, they’re manufactured with a readily accessible chemical element.
“They don’t compete with the same raw materials,” he said, referencing the high demand for lithium for electric vehicles, cell phones and other electronics. “As you’re thinking about geopolitical concerns and price volatility, these components take that out of the mix.”
Still, Martin continued, promising ideas need a path to commercialization or they will stay on a shelf gathering dust.
“It’s exciting that this space has a number of new entrants,” he said. “Other utilities will be piloting different technologies. By not all choosing the same ones, the energy community can learn what’s successful and where much quicker.
“We want to provide as many solutions as possible at the lowest cost to customers.”
The teams that both Martin and Jackson lead have spent countless hours comparing notes with utility peer groups, technology vendors and experts at the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to narrow down their battery choices.
For instance, Dominion has contracted with EnerVenue, a California company, to build the metal-hydrogen battery for the VSU campus.
The company, founded in 2020 by a Stanford University materials science researcher, is borrowing the same technology that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration deployed to power signature — and distant — enterprises such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Exploration Rovers and the International Space Station.
“This is a proven chemistry that we are commercializing for the grid,” said Brad Dore, EnerVenue’s vice president of global marketing. “The difference is that NASA didn’t have to care about the cost — and we do.”
In a nutshell, here’s how it works. During the energy charging process, the water inside the vessel is split, creating hydrogen gas. At discharge, that gas recombines into water.
Such batteries can discharge for up to 12 hours, said Dore, more than double the capability of a typical lithium-ion battery.
He emphasized that the charging process is stable, repeatable and doesn’t cause the degradation common with battery chemistries such as lithium-ion. The other plus, he added, is that the metal, which is 99% nickel, means most of the battery is recyclable when it does finally wear out.
Once Dominion partnered with VSU, the utility collaborated with EPRI researchers to sort through technologies and manufacturers, as well as basics such as cost and land footprint.
“They did a lot of the legwork for us,” Jackson said about matching a battery with the 6,000-seat Multi-Purpose Center, which attracts audiences from the university and the community.
Fortunately, the battery won’t have to be shipped from California because EnerVenue announced a year ago that it is constructing an energy storage factory in Shelby County, in north central Kentucky. That will translate to a much shorter trip to the Petersburg campus three years from now.
In the meantime, Haile and fellow faculty members are creating a power storage curriculum.
The professor is already anticipating the new battery could be a springboard to attract more on-campus energy storage projects as the technology evolves.
“The potential is huge,” he said. “Our mission here is access and opportunity, so to be able to show our students what the future is, that’s a big deal.”
UTILITIES: Questions still abound about the Tennessee Valley Authority CEO’s decision to replace a Tennessee coal plant with a gas-fired plant and 122-mile pipeline without public approval by the TVA board, and despite warnings from the U.S. EPA that the environmental review underlying the project was inadequate. (WPLN)
ALSO:
OVERSIGHT:
SOLAR: An energy company completes construction of a 637 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)
POLITICS: A Florida Republican consultant admits to approving a plan by an ex-state lawmaker to recruit a third-party candidate to siphon votes and defeat a Democratic candidate targeted by Florida Power & Light. (Floodlight/Miami Herald)
TRANSITION: Duke Energy experiments with microgrids and solar panel efficiency, and invests in grid improvements as it receives rate increases in North Carolina to transition from coal. (WRAL)
GOVERNMENT: A new study reveals federal grant funding to assist low-income Virginians with paying their bills is shrinking and already falls far short of the need, while a separate report suggests participation in a regional carbon market could provide another funding source. (Virginia Mercury)
OIL & GAS:
PIPELINES: A West Virginia gas cooperative association receives $2.1 million in federal money to relocate a natural gas pipeline from a flood-prone creek. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)
COMMENTARY:
HYDROGEN: Xcel Energy says plans for an Upper Midwest hydrogen hub are jeopardized by proposed federal tax credit rules that would bar utilities from diverting existing clean energy generation to power hydrogen facilities. (Star Tribune)
SOLAR: A proposed 600 MW solar project outside Lawrence, Kansas, highlights land use debates with utility-scale developments and concerns about removing prime farmland. (Flatland)
OHIO: Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted refuse to comment so far on the apparent suicide of former regulator Sam Randazzo, who previously had their support and was a key player in the state’s largest corruption scandal in history. (ABC 5)
CLIMATE: Experts say Chicago’s climate lawsuit against major oil companies is likely to be moved back to local courts ahead of a long legal dispute with deep-pocketed companies. (Chicago Sun-Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR: Federal regulators will hold a public information meeting next week in Michigan on an unprecedented plan to reopen a shuttered nuclear plant. (MLive)
COAL: A Congress member from Michigan co-sponsors legislation that backers say would close a loophole in federal law that allows coal companies to skirt mine remediation requirements when they file for bankruptcy. (E&E News, subscription)
UTILITIES: Ratepayers in northeastern Ohio are set for lower electricity bills this summer as FirstEnergy pays about 27% less for wholesale power at auction this year. (Cleveland.com)
COMMENTARY:
CLEAN ENERGY: The U.S. Interior Department finalizes a rule that will cut fees as much as 80% for solar and wind projects on federal land as it celebrates a milestone of permitting more than 25 GW of renewable projects under President Biden. (The Hill, Reuters)
ALSO: An Indigenous researcher says tribes need application support, better access to information, and resources to build better infrastructure, to in addition to funding to adopt clean energy. (Grist)
CLIMATE: While the world’s biggest companies are making stronger climate commitments, an analysis finds they’re still insufficient to meet Paris Agreement goals. (Grist)
GRID: About 2.6 TW of power projects — 95% of them solar, battery and wind developments — were waiting to connect to the U.S. grid at the end of last year, up 27% from the year before. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR:
HYDROGEN: Xcel Energy says plans for an Upper Midwest hydrogen hub are jeopardized by proposed federal tax credit rules that would bar utilities from diverting existing clean energy generation to power hydrogen facilities. (Star Tribune)
OIL & GAS: Oil companies challenge a federal regulation requiring former owners to clean up abandoned offshore oil and gas infrastructure along California’s coast, potentially leaving taxpayers to pick up the multimillion-dollar bill. (E&E News)
COAL:
EMISSIONS:
EFFICIENCY: Advocates push the U.S. Energy Department to speed up its updating of appliance efficiency standards. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Michigan is offering millions of dollars in funding to bolster research on recycling materials from electric vehicle batteries. (IPR)
UTILITIES: Questions still abound about the Tennessee Valley Authority CEO’s decision to replace a Tennessee coal plant with a gas plant and pipeline without public approval by the TVA board, and despite warnings from the U.S. EPA that the environmental review underlying the project was inadequate. (WPLN)
COMMENTARY: Utilities are overstating the urgency of their need for new power to meet increasing demand, and should pause to consider alternatives to gas, two clean electricity advocates write. (Utility Dive)
CLEAN ENERGY: The U.S. Interior Department finalizes a rule that will cut fees as much as 80% for solar and wind projects on federal land as it celebrates a milestone of permitting more than 25 GW of renewable projects under President Biden. (The Hill, Reuters)
ALSO: An Indigenous researcher says tribes need application support, better access to information, and resources to build better infrastructure, to in addition to funding to adopt clean energy. (Grist)
CLIMATE: While the world’s biggest companies are making stronger climate commitments, an analysis finds they’re still insufficient to meet Paris Agreement goals. (Grist)
GRID: About 2.6 TW of power projects — 95% of them solar, battery and wind developments — were waiting to connect to the U.S. grid at the end of last year, up 27% from the year before. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR:
HYDROGEN: Xcel Energy says plans for an Upper Midwest hydrogen hub are jeopardized by proposed federal tax credit rules that would bar utilities from diverting existing clean energy generation to power hydrogen facilities. (Star Tribune)
OIL & GAS: Oil companies challenge a federal regulation requiring former owners to clean up abandoned offshore oil and gas infrastructure along California’s coast, potentially leaving taxpayers to pick up the multimillion-dollar bill. (E&E News)
COAL:
EMISSIONS:
EFFICIENCY: Advocates push the U.S. Energy Department to speed up its updating of appliance efficiency standards. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Michigan is offering millions of dollars in funding to bolster research on recycling materials from electric vehicle batteries. (IPR)
UTILITIES: Questions still abound about the Tennessee Valley Authority CEO’s decision to replace a Tennessee coal plant with a gas plant and pipeline without public approval by the TVA board, and despite warnings from the U.S. EPA that the environmental review underlying the project was inadequate. (WPLN)
COMMENTARY: Utilities are overstating the urgency of their need for new power to meet increasing demand, and should pause to consider alternatives to gas, two clean electricity advocates write. (Utility Dive)
GRID: The New England grid operator’s newest transmission study finds the region has to spend up to $26 billion over the next 26 years to bulk up its transmission network — a large sum but roughly comparable to spending in recent decades. (CommonWealth Beacon)
ALSO: Two Connecticut municipalities sue to stop a state-approved transmission line expansion, calling the plan an “aesthetic eyesore and an unjust blight.” (Only In Bridgeport)
SOLAR:
COAL: Federal energy analysts believe April coal exports will be slashed by about a third because of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and subsequent Port of Baltimore closure. (The Hill)
BUILDINGS:
NUCLEAR:
STORAGE: Pennsylvania’s utility commission issues new battery storage guidelines for utilities that allow them to use non-wires distribution reliability projects and possibly own them on a case-by-case basis. (Utility Dive)
UTILITIES:
CLEAN ENERGY: A town in Massachusetts’ Berkshires region is undertaking weatherization measures, installing electric vehicle chargers and installing solar arrays to achieve net-zero by 2050. (Berkshire Eagle)
TRANSIT: Rhode Island’s public transit agency says piloting no fares on its most popular bus route increased ridership by nearly 100,000 riders but cost it $2.7 million, calling the cost unsustainable. (Rhode Island Current)
EQUITY:
GRID: Utilities in Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee want to build gigawatts of new natural gas-fired power plants to meet escalating power demand from data centers and factories, potentially jeopardizing state and federal climate goals. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
TRANSITION:
SOLAR:
WIND: Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities begin using a single wind turbine to study its capabilities, along with a lithium-ion battery and 44,500 solar panels. (Spectrum News)
POLITICS:
OIL & GAS:
HYDROGEN: A hydrogen company buys the last available water rights to Texas’ Nueces River, sparking concern about drinking water availability in the nearby city of Corpus Christi. (Inside Climate News)
CRYPTOCURRENCY:
WORKFORCE: Students at a Virginia technical high school follow line workers from a local electric cooperative to learn more about trade jobs. (WHSV)
UTILITIES: West Virginia regulators launch an investigation of how utilities notify customers when there’s an outage or other service interruption. (WV Metro News)
EMISSIONS: U.S. EPA officials are reportedly mulling changes to a landmark power plant emissions rule first proposed a year ago and will likely give utilities more time to add carbon capture equipment to gas facilities. (E&E News)
ALSO: The U.S. Senate passes a bill that would invalidate a Transportation Department rule aimed at cutting highway emissions, though President Biden would veto the measure if it passes the House. (Politico)
CLIMATE:
GRID:
PIPELINES: The U.S. Justice Department weighs in on the Line 5 dispute for the first time, arguing that Enbridge has been trespassing on tribal land in Wisconsin but that a previous court order failed to consider all of the implications of shutting down the pipeline. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
OHIO: FirstEnergy made a previously unreported $1 million dark money gift to benefit the campaign of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s eventual running mate, who later worked to win support for the state’s power plant bailout legislation, according to newly revealed company emails. (Energy News Network/Floodlight)
HYDROGEN:
NUCLEAR:
COAL: Federal energy analysts believe April coal exports will be slashed by about a third because of the Port of Baltimore closure. (The Hill)
SOLAR: Residents in a rural Illinois village west of Chicago hope to overturn local restrictions on rooftop solar that were previously enacted because of aesthetic concerns. (Energy News Network)
OFFSHORE WIND: Maine lawmakers reject a proposal from the governor to exempt offshore wind hub development on Sears Island from adhering to sand dune protections, obscuring the project’s path forward. (Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald)
ALSO:
SOLAR:
GRID:
STORAGE:
CARBON CAPTURE: In Pennsylvania, lawmakers advance a Republican bill establishing a regulatory framework for underground carbon dioxide-storage wells to support federally backed hydrogen hubs, but critics say it doesn’t include enough liability guarantees from involved companies. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nearly 200 electric vehicles were reportedly stalled overnight waiting for their turn at one rural Vermont charging station after the eclipse. (WCVB)
NUCLEAR: Wiscasset, Maine, officials say they’ll negotiate with the owners of the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant about how much revenue the town will receive after a state law closed a tax exemption for the facility. (Bangor Daily News)
TRANSIT: A district court judge will soon decide whether New York has to go back to the drawing board with its Manhattan congestion tolling plan or whether it doesn’t need an environmental impact statement. (NJ Advance Media)
UTILITIES: Pennsylvania utility regulators unanimously vote to investigate a 16% rate hike request from Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania. (Penn Live)
BUILDINGS: The Efficiency Maine Green Bank will use a $15 million federal grant to support energy loans and deploy heat pumps to small businesses, homes, schools and elsewhere. (Mainebiz)
WORKFORCE:
COMMENTARY: In Vermont, the Burlington Electric Department’s general manager and a conservation program manager write that the U.S. EPA’s new final rule for vehicle emissions is a win for the state and planet. (VT Digger)
OIL & GAS: Federal officials approve the construction of a deepwater oil export facility off the Texas Gulf Coast that will be the largest oil export terminal in the U.S. (Houston Chronicle)
ALSO:
STORAGE: Federal investigators cite an electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia for safety violations after a recent fire in which employees “suffered potentially permanent respiratory damage.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
NUCLEAR:
EMISSIONS:
SOLAR:
BIOMASS: Mississippi officials agreed to give more than $24 million in incentives to wood pellet producers in an effort to revitalize struggling rural areas, only to see a global debate erupt around the industry and its biggest company file for bankruptcy. (Mississippi Today)
OVERSIGHT: South Carolina regulators move to pass sweeping legislation that overhauls how the state regulates utilities to help clear the way for a planned natural gas-fired power plant, while renewable energy companies lobby for changes to encourage more solar development. (Utility Dive)
GRID: Texas solar and battery installations are growing so much that federal energy officials say there’s less need for natural gas generation during the day. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, PV Magazine)
COAL ASH: Duke Energy announces a new rail yard and loading dock at a retired coal-fired power plant in North Carolina to assist with disposal of about 1.3 million tons of coal ash. (Greensboro News & Record)
UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority names a new executive leader for its east region, which includes eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. (news release)
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