Overcoming the transmission gap
As energy companies try to shift gears into cleaner power sources, like wind turbines, it's becoming more and more apparent that there's something missing from their plans: transmission lines. While building humongous wind farms in the deserts is a heck of an accomplishment -- it doesn't do you much good unless you can pipe that power back to people who want to pay for it. Since the deregulation of the power industry in 70's, generation and transmission have been working independently of one another, only cooperating when necessary. The result has been a steady drop-off in the construction of transmission lines -- sometimes to an irresponsible level. Now, with wind farms and thermal solar plants sprouting up all over the map, power companies are once again having to work in lockstep to get their projects to pay off.
In the 70's, the annual investment in transmission lines was around $5.5 billion. By the 90's it had fallen to $3B. What we're seeing now is an unprecedented boom for companies that build transmission lines, as experts are predicting investments of $8B for the next two years, followed by what will likely be more strong years. T. Boone Pickens' wind project is investing $2B all by itself to construct the necessary lines.
Transmission companies couldn't be happier to be getting the attention that they've been denied for the last decade or so. Being the less glamorous, behind the scenes part of the power industry, the increased investment is welcome and necessary. The situation is also allowing them to cash in on the green energy boom without having to invest in wind or solar equipment, and new lines will take some of the stress off of aging parts of the grid.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-21-2008 @ 2:08PM
Adam said...
It seems to me that all utilities have to go underground. Overhead lines are expensive, dangerous, prone to storm damage and impact the use and value of property.
As for funding, a few billion is a trivial number -- barely keeping the USA at war for a day or two.
Sure the equipment used to lay fiber optics in trenches could be scaled up to carry multiple bundles including power.
How long before power can be transmitted over something with less loss and less expense than copper?
As ever, the government "dropping the ball" is in terms of R&D, not just infrastructure and capital investment.
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5-21-2008 @ 5:19PM
Aimless said...
"How long before power can be transmitted over something with less loss and less expense than copper?"
Give it a century or so. Super conductivity is nowhere near large scale applications.
So for now, we need high voltage for transmission lines. And it just ain't feasible to use ground cables when air insulation is free.