A post that I shared with the Clean Power Group. I thought the T&D group may be interested as well.
The quote made famous in the great 1989 film, Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come” is often cited by proponents of wind and transmission development. With a life of 40 to 50 years, transmission structures will almost certainly return significant economic benefits for many years once constructed.
The unprecedented recent push for offshore wind power along the Atlantic coast highlights a large opportunity for transmission developers. Along with this planned development, it has become clear that a tremendous amount of new high-voltage transmission and grid infrastructure upgrades are needed.
Earlier this week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued an executive order raising the state’s goal for offshore wind energy from 3.5 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, to an astounding 7.5 GW by 2035, this coming on the heels of several recent eastern state-level announcements to expand offshore wind development along the Atlantic Seaboard.
From data compiled by ABB’s Velocity Suite research team, there are now roughly 27.5 GW of offshore wind projects planned for development along the Atlantic coast by 2035. That’s roughly the same amount of capacity from all sources currently operating in Texas, which is by far the largest home to onshore wind capacity in the country.
For the northeast to realize the full value of the rapid development of offshore wind resources, developers and regulators will need to support a Texas-sized high-voltage transmission development effort. Read more now...