Transmission lines cleared red tape
[from CCL Community]
In order to build enough renewable energy to avoid climate disaster, the U.S. and countries around the world will need to build an enormous amount of transmission capacity to get power from remote solar and wind farms to city centers.
The current outlook is daunting. There are more than 8,000 energy projects — most of them solar, wind, and battery projects — waiting to connect to the grid. Less than 20% of those projects will ever make it onto the grid. And in the last decade, the average wait time to connect clean energy projects to the grid has doubled to four years.
But in 2023 multiple important transmission projects moved forward.
Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO
The line will terminate at a substation controlled by Southern California Edison south of Las Vegas, Nev., another connection to the California market.
TransWest Express started construction
After over a decade and a half of work, the TransWest Express transmission line in 2023 received its last major permit from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and broke ground on its 732-mile transmission line.
The project will carry 3,000 MW of wind power from Wyoming to consumers in California, Nevada, and Arizona.
SunZia received federal approval
In 2023, the 520-mile SunZia Southwest transmission line, which waited nearly as long as TransWest for its key permits, also secured BLM approval and broke ground this year. The project will carry up to 4,500 MW of mostly renewable electricity from New Mexico to Arizona and California.
Grain Belt Express inched closer to reality
Grain Belt Express, another transmission project plagued by regulatory delays, moved closer to construction when it received an important approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission this year. If built, the 800-mile transmission line will send 5,000 MW of electricity from the windy plains of Kansas to Missouri, Illinois, and other nearby states.