State and federal renewable energy standards in the U.S. have created a larger market for alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, and improved efficiencies have supported the industry development needed to meet this demand. A lack of energy transmission infrastructure, though, may be preventing these markets from reaching their full potential.
Jeff Dagle, a specialist in power-grid resilience at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, recently told Scientific American that the U.S. has come a long way in terms of grid technology research and development since the blackout that put 50 million people in the dark in 2003. He says utility companies have also invested significant sums to improve visibility into existing systems.
Still, Dagle says the grid itself is much the same as it was 10 years ago.
This is a problem when it comes to enabling wind market growth, according to Mike Gregerson, consultant for the Great Plains Institute. Gregerson told MDM in Wind Market Grows: Challenges Remain that it takes more than government incentives and ample wind to spur on developers. “They try to figure out where their best chance for development is with the least amount of investment in the build-out of the grid,” he says.
But Dagle says this build-out will only happen where it makes economic sense. In many cases, such as a proposed project that would deliver wind power from the Dakotas and Wyoming to nearby cities, this is not the case. “Maybe someday it would make sense to connect east and west, but there is no compelling reason right now to build a bunch of power lines, because the cost-benefit just isn't there.”
Beth Soholt, executive director for Wind on the Wires, told MDM that existing transmission systems in the U.S., many of which are more than 60 years old, will need to be reinforced and more capacity will need to be added for the industry to reach its full potential. “Transmission is the glass ceiling for being able to develop lots and lots of wind power,” she says.
Read more about the opportunities and challenges in alternative energy markets in MDM’s 2013 Alternative Energy Markets Update.
