The grid is overburdened, under-resourced — and vital to the energy transition. New federal funding aims to increase capacity and get more clean energy built.
The U.S. power grid is overburdened and under-resourced — and the Biden administration just announced a major investment aimed at helping solve those problems.
The Department of Energy has offered $2.2 billion to eight projects across 18 states that could expand and strengthen the grid. The projects range from deploying grid-enhancing technologies that boost the capacity of existing power lines to building brand-new high-voltage transmission cables that will enable wind farms in the Great Plains and off the coast of New England to plug into the grid.
Tuesday’s announcement represents another significant federal investment in the U.S. transmission grid, which isn’t growing fast enough to allow clean energy to come online at the pace needed to combat climate change. Energy experts warn that without a doubling or tripling of existing grid capacity, the country will fail to hit the Biden administration’s goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030.
Route Fifty
By Jeff St. John,
Canary Media
August 14, 2024