The queue of projects waiting to connect to the US grid is getting bigger and bigger. At the end of last year it had reached nearly 2.6 TW, double the size of the existing grid.
The projects are almost entirely wind, solar and storage (mostly batteries). The size of the queue has swelled in recent years as emissions reduction goals, clean energy subsidies and falling costs have driven unprecedented interest from developers.
Most of these projects will never be built - the completion rate of projects between 2000 and 2018 was just 19%. However, the time taken to progress through the queue is increasing. It was less than 2 years in 2008, 3 years in 2015 and 5 years in 2023.
This is a problem we are seeing all over the world. While it's great that developers are so eager to build new renewable energy projects, that's not much use unless the projects can connect to the grid. If emissions reduction targets are to be met, the connection process needs to be streamlined.
Reforms and modernisation of the often legacy interconnection processes have been proposed and can help, but generally countries just aren't building new transmission lines fast enough. This is something we are seeing in Australia, where community engagement and social license is proving a challenge.
Is it time to consider more widespread use of Grid Enhancing Technologies to extract more capacity out of the existing lines?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
This data is from a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published earlier this month, covered by Canary Media.