Grid Expansion A Must
The U.S. electric grid should be expanded to link areas of the country rich in renewable resources like wind, solar and geothermal power, to populated areas, according to a report released by the nation’s top wind and solar industry groups a few months ago.
Building more transmission to accommodate vast new renewable power generation will help the U.S. cut its greenhouse gas emissions while also bringing cost savings to consumers, according to the report, which was released by American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association. A better transmission system would also boost competition in the wholesale power markets because it would open up the system to a variety of suppliers, the report said.
Wind farms have been proposed that would generate nearly 300,000 megawatts of electricity, about 20% of U.S. power demand, and 13,000 megawatts of solar power is under development in California, but new transmission infrastructure is needed to ship that power to the grid.
A patchwork of federal and state regulations have made permitting new transmission facilities a lengthy and costly enterprise, they said, suggesting that transmission permitting should be streamlined, with authority held by the federal government.
