Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: October 24, 2024
Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: October 24, 2024
$1.5 billion for four epic new power line projects!
The Biden-Harris Administration is building new clean energy power lines across America.
Tell Congress to sustain transmission line project funding!
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Reasons For Hope
In an epic leap forward for the Biden-Harris Administration’s decarbonization efforts, on October 3, 2024 the Department of Energy (DOE) announced an additional $1.5 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for the second round of Transmission Facilitation Program projects, comprising four huge new power transmission lines to bring more renewable energy online for America’s grid! Together, these projects will enable nearly 1,000 miles of new power lines, 7,100 MW of new energy capacity, and nearly 9,000 new jobs.
The Aroostook Renewable Project in this writer’s home state of Maine will deliver up to 1,200 MW of new wind power from northern Maine to the New England grid. Climate and energy folks in Maine have been excited about Aroostook wind potential for years - this brings it closer to reality!
The Cimarron Link will bring 1,900 MW of new solar and wind from the Oklahoma Panhandle area to growing cities in eastern Oklahoma.
Southern Spirit will connect the formerly independent Texas grid to the midwestern U.S. grid, increasing reliability with 3,000 MW of new bidirectional capacity. This historic first is particularly notable in the context of Texas grid operators’ widely criticized response to climate disasters in recent years. With this project, Texans will be able to get power from the rest of America if needed!
Southline (Phase 2) will bring 1,000 MW of new transmission capacity to New Mexico, helping make clean energy available for cleantech manufacturing projects and expanding on Southline Phase 1’s connection between Arizona and New Mexico.
“The U.S. transmission network is the backbone of our nation’s electricity system. Though our grid has served U.S. energy needs for more than a century, our country’s needs are changing…
DOE’s approach to deploying near-term solutions and developing long-term planning tools will ensure our electric grid is more interconnected and resilient than ever before, while also supporting greater electricity demand.
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to bolstering our power grid to improve the everyday life of Americans through affordable power, fewer blackouts, more reliable power, and additional jobs across our country.”
-U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk.
The transmission backlog is a major bottleneck acting as one of the remaining brakes on surging renewables growth in the U.S., and building these new power lines will make it possible for lots of new solar and wind farms to get going! This is the kind of continental-scale clean energy planning that Anthropocene America needs.
With these new projects, almost all of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s funding for the Transmission Facilitation Program has now been allocated. It’s up to Congress to further invest in expanding this vital cleantech infrastructure in future legislation, and hearing from their constituents could help make it happen.