It’s nearly Friday. Energy might be pricey these days—but just five bucks was enough to power a 25K-pound electric plane for a half-hour flight. This marked the maiden voyage for Heart Aerospace’s X1 model, the biggest battery-powered aircraft to hit the skies. Eventually, the company wants to develop a 30-seat hybrid model for regional airports. As plane ticket prices continue to climb, that’s some comforting news. ✈️
— Molly, Carrie, and the Energy Central editorial team
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A private-equity firm wants to buy UGI for a cool $9B.
The details: KKR has sent a takeover offer to UGI Corp., a Pennsylvania-based natural gas and electric distribution company (whose subsidiary serves over 700K utility customers in PA and MD). But it’s unclear whether UGI is game, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The trend: The data center buildout has whet PE’s appetite for energy firms. KKR, for one, bought EDF Power Solutions’s 5.6-GW US and Canada renewables portfolio in June. And earlier this year, Energy Capital Partners sold natural gas business Calpine to Constellation for $26.6B (which could become the most profitable PE deal of all time).
PA Gov. Josh Shapiro is taking charge of the state’s data center rollout.
There’s a new sheriff in town: Shapiro’s new executive order requires developers to comply with the “best practice” standards he unveiled this spring. These include directives to secure capacity without costing other customers and develop community engagement plans.
And next door in Ohio: Open AI and other tech titans are planning what could become the biggest data center project yet—a whopping 10-GW facility, which is slated for a former federal uranium enrichment site. It’s set to include 9.2 GW of onsite gas…which Heatmap says would become the country’s largest fossil fuel plant.
Getting gassy: As more of these facilities tout plans for new gas, BloombergNEF estimates that US power sector emissions could jump by 20% (that is, in the off chance they all get built).
BLM’s Utah geothermal lease sale brought in over $24M in bids.
Hot, hot, hot: In June, the agency’s New Mexico auction yielded over $16.5M (then the second-highest geothermal sum in BLM history). Now, a Utah auction has racked up nearly $25M…just shy of the $28M record set in 2008. Utah hosts some of the country’s buzziest geothermal projects, including Fervo Energy’s Cape Station and the DOE-sponsored FORGE lab.
Plus, more green for geothermal: Next-gen system developer XGS Energy reportedly aims to kick off $300M in private fundraising in September.
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Duke wants to add over 50 GW of capacity to its Carolinas footprint by 2041.
That stat comes from Duke’s 2026 Carolinas Resource Plan. The target includes nearly 14 GW of gas, 18 GW of solar, 13 GW of storage, and 4 GW of nuclear. Also on the agenda? Delaying coal plant retirements to “provide flexibility” amid “near-term growing demand across the Carolinas,” an approach also pursued by TVA in its recent IRP.
The drivers: Duke pointed to economic development, population growth, and ramped-up electrification. Meanwhile, the company forecasts nearly 8 GW of large load-demand in the Carolinas.
The next steps: Duke has filed the plan with South Carolina’s PSC, and expects a final decision by June 2027 (North Carolina officials are currently mulling over Duke’s 2025 Carolinas Resource Plan).
California officials are scratching their heads at the Extended Day-Ahead Market’s data.
The math ain’t mathing: CAISO has claimed that EDAM, which kicked off in May, delivered over $11M in benefits over its first two months (nearly $6M for CAISO and over $5M for first participant PacifiCorp).
The issue? CAISO has sent around half that amount in congestion revenues to PacificCorp, a coalition of CA cities noted. Now, officials want EDAM to provide an “ongoing comparison of costs and benefits.”
Plus, the California PUC pointed out, CAISO has made two load adjustments this summer overshot its own reliability standards.that appear to have
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Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow!