Alternative Energy Faces Power Line "Bottleneck" In
U.S. West
Date: 22-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Jim Christie - Analysis
Alternative Energy Faces Power Line
Snow covered San Gabriel Mountains are seen above the
downtown Los Angeles skyline January 7, 2008.
Photo: Danny Moloshok
SAN FRANCISCO - President Barack Obama aims to double alternative energy
production over three years, but how much "green" power will come from the
U.S. West is uncertain if the sunny and wind-swept region cannot overcome a
shortage of power lines.
Installing large solar installations and dotting landscapes with wind
turbines across the western United States would be, technically speaking,
straightforward, and potentially popular with the renewed interest in
domestic energy sources amid rising economic, environmental and security
concerns.
Delivering the region's green power to markets, however, is proving easier
said than done.
"Our customers are telling us that they're already seeing transmission
bottlenecks with their future plans," said Vic Abate, head of General
Electric Co's renewable energy business.
Transmission line costs vary wildly. For years the rule of thumb was $1
million per mile, but a recent project in Southern California cost $16.5
million per mile.
T. Boone Pickens' "Pickens Plan" for generating 22 percent of the United
States' electricity from wind power sees the need for $70 billion in
transmission and power-grid infrastructure.
"It's all over the map," said George Given, head of the consulting firm Wood
Mackenzie's global power unit. "If you're building over Texas, which is
relatively flat ... you don't have so many issues. But if you're building in
mountains, it's monumentally different work."
Transmission line projects in the U.S. West, much of it mountainous, face
another steep challenge the region's industry and public officials say the
Obama administration must tackle: federal bureaucracy.
Much of the region's expanses are overseen by a variety of U.S. agencies
charged with managing natural resources, wildlife, parks and native
populations.
"Nevada is, what, 90 percent federally owned?" said Rich Halvey, energy
program director at the Western Governors Association. "We're continually
stymied because of how long it takes to get transmission projects approved
and built."
SPEEDING FEDERAL PERMITS
Bureaucratic delays stem from mandates of U.S. land agencies, said Lew
Milford of the Clean Energy States Alliance, which represents 20 states'
renewable energy funds: "It's one of those tricky good-versus-good problems
-- trying to move more renewable energy but in an environmentally friendly
way."
The U.S. Forest Service is the toughest sell of any U.S. land agency, said
Robert Mitchell, chief executive of transmission systems developer
Trans-Elect.
"If you are the chief forester and it is your responsibility to protect
forest, probably the last thing you want to happen is to have transmission
lines built through the forest," he said.
U.S. land agencies will need to cut red tape to help speed transmission
projects, said Wayne Whitlock, a partner with the law firm Pillsbury
Winthrop Shaw Pittman and a former lawyer at the U.S. Department of the
Interior.
"Would they give exemptions? I'd be surprised if they do that. But they do
have to make these projects higher priority," Whitlock said.
In a January 6 letter to Obama, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged
"Establishing clear policy within the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and
other federal agencies to prioritize renewable energy project development
and transmission on federal lands."
He also urged the U.S. Forest Service speed permitting and project changes
needed to complete Sempra Energy's Sunrise Powerlink, a $1.9 billion,
120-mile long, 1,000-megawatt power line from California's inland Imperial
Valley to coastal San Diego County.
State regulators back the project and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on
Tuesday gave its approval for the line to cross 49 miles of its land.
"If we get that, we're poised and ready to take the project into the next
stages," says Mike Niggli, Sempra Energy Utilities chief operating officer,
adding the Sunrise line would greatly enhance delivering green power.
Wind-swept Wyoming also wants the U.S. government to focus on transmission
infrastructure.
"For several years, transmission has been the recognized bottleneck,"
Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal recently advised Obama by letter.
Investment incentives like those for wind farms may be needed, Freudenthal
recently told Reuters.
"There have been no incentives for the guys who want to take the
transmission risk," he said. "Maybe the federal government has to step in
... to provide that help so that lines get built," he said.
(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Los Angeles and Scott Malone in
Boston; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
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