Welcome to Grid Brief! Here’s what we’re looking at today: federal agents raid a China-based solar manufacturer’s factory in Florida, South Korean President Yoon is taking an increasingly aggressive pronuclear stance, Africa’s largest bank defends its fossil fuel investments, and more.

Federal Agents Raid JinkoSolar

Yesterday, federal agents from the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection raided JinkoSolar, a Chinese solar panel manufacturer with a plant in Jacksonville, Florida.

The impetus for the raid remains unclear, and the company has not yet commented on the matter.

“JinkoSolar, a China-headquartered solar panel manufacturing giant, set up the 400-MW Jacksonville plant in 2018 and employs more than 270 workers,” reports Solar Power World. “The company is planning on a $52 million expansion that would create another 250 full-time jobs. A $2.3 million economic development grant was approved last month. Jacksonville City Council was set to vote on additional measures later today.”

JinkoSolar is one of many Chinese solar manufacturers that have come under scrutiny regarding their alleged use of Southeast Asian operations to avoid paying antidumping and countervailing duties on solar panel exports.

Plus, Chinese solar companies are facing greater scrutiny due to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans imported goods from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, unless suppliers can prove that their products were not made with forced labor. Recently, solar panels from JinkoSolar and other Chinese companies have been detained for further investigation.

South Korea Gets Serious About Nuclear

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is on a mission for fission.

Yoon is charting a course that will tear down his predecessor’s anti-nuclear agenda and make South Korea a nuclear powerhouse once again.

“The Yoon administration is also set to resume the suspended use of nuclear energy and stalled construction of new nuclear plants, coupled with plans to export about 10 Korea-developed APR-1400 reactors during his single, five-year term,” reports The Korea Times. “The primary examples include the commercial operation of Shin Hanul unit 1 at the Shin Hanul Nuclear Power Plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, in December. The operation came five years after construction was halted under the previous administration. The stalled construction of Shin Hanul units 3 and 4 will resume in 2024.”

Yoon’s dedication to the nuclear build is so intense that he has said government personnel who diverge from his plan can be let go. This week, Yoon told state council members to "take bold personnel action if they take an ambiguous stance that does not conform to the new state policy.”

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African Bank Defends Fossil Fuel Investments

South Africa-based Standard Bank, which holds the largest amount of assets in Africa, has come under fire for investments in fossil fuels.

“Last month, Just Share said in an analysis of Standard Bank Group’s 2022 climate report that the bank’s on- and off-balance sheet exposure to fossil fuels jumped by 22% from 2021 to 2022,” reports Oilprice.com. “Total exposure to fossil fuel power generation, coal mining, and oil and gas (integrated, trading & retail, exploration and production, and midstream) was $6.5 billion (119.4 billion South African rand) in 2022. Standard Bank’s exposure to renewables jumped by a much larger percentage, 84%, but the bank’s exposure to fossil fuels is around 4.5 times higher, Just Share said.”

“There is no justifiable basis to argue that significant and extended new fossil fuel investment is required for Africa’s development. On the contrary, there is significant evidence that increasing Africa’s exposure to fossil fuels would have severely negative impacts,” the shareholder activist group said.

Standard disagrees.

“It is not possible for Africa and many of the African countries to ignore the shortage of electricity supply,” Kenny Fihla, chief executive officer of Standard’s corporate and investment banking unit, told Bloomberg. “Today’s challenges are not going to be resolved overnight and therefore a much more balanced approach is required.”

Consider South Africa itself, which needs its coal plants to remain online to keep the lights on. Without further investment, Standard’s home base will go from power hungry to power starved.

Or Nigeria, which relies on its oil industry. And then there’s the East African Oil Pipeline, which will run from Uganda to Tanzania. “Oil development in Uganda will be transformational to the GDP of that country,” Fihla said.

Conversation Starters

• Warm weather pummels Duke Energy. “Duke Energy Corp on Tuesday missed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit, as the gas and electric utilities firm was hit by unfavorable weather, higher interest expenses, and lower volumes. Warmer-than-normal weather in the states serviced by the company weighed on customers' electricity needs for heating in colder months,” reports Reuters. “Duke's electric utilities, which serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, saw income fall about 12% to $791 million from last year. Meanwhile for its gas utilities, which serve 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, income rose about 13% to $287 million for the quarter, aided by better retail margins. Income from gas and growth from rider charges helped the power provider's quarterly revenue rise 3.8% to $7.3 billion and above analysts' estimate of $6.6 billion.”

• The Texas House gets behind natural gas for reliability, anticipating a difficult summer. “The Texas Senate on Thursday voted 27-4 to advance a plan to provide incentives and including 20-year, zero-interest loans to companies building gas-fired power plants and the House of Representatives has scheduled a Wednesday hearing to consider the measure, SB 2627,” reports Utility Dive. “The bill replaces a similar measure, SB 6, which passed the Senate in April but stalled in the House over concerns it could fundamentally alter the Texas energy market and benefit few companies.”

• Aramco’s profits have fallen along with the price of oil. “Saudi oil giant Aramco's first quarter net profit dropped 19% from a year earlier to 119.54 billion riyals ($31.88 billion), it said on Tuesday, due to lower crude prices,” reports Reuters. “Profit still beat analysts' median forecast of $30.8 billion, according to Refinitiv data, and Aramco said the decline was partially offset by lower taxes including in the zakat Islamic tax and a rise in finance and other income. Net profit was 3.75% higher than in the fourth quarter.”

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