At the time it was proposed in 2005, the TransWest Express transmission project seemed like a simple idea: bring renewable energy from Wyoming, then (and now) one of the nation’s largest producers of wind power, to help meet growing customer demand. electricity in the desert southwest. And allowing renewables to come to market would seem to align with the political trade winds. But while the project’s goals could not have been clearer, its 18-year path to final approval illustrates the many hurdles facing long-haul energy projects and the need for change if it is possible to move towards the energy goals. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at TransWest’s long road to approval, the difficulties in building new energy infrastructure and the long-term repercussions of those delays, and some permitting reform proposals that could shorten the project deadlines.
As we explained in Part 1 of this series, permitting infrastructure projects, from oil and gas pipelines to transmission lines and offshore wind farms, is a known problem with many contributing factors, but no easy solutions. Almost everyone recognizes the benefit of having stakeholders and interested parties involved in major proposals to build or expand energy infrastructure, and credible regulations and appropriate safeguards are essential. Still, the reality is that the permitting process for some major projects can drag on for years and prevent others from becoming a reality. We took a closer look at Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the current poster child for permitting challenges, which still has an uncertain future even though the company says construction is more than 90 percent complete. (See our weekly NATGAS Appalachia report of the latest on MVP.)
Let’s start with a quick look at how America’s electricity grid was set up and how it differs from what we’ll need in the future, something the TransWest project was designed for. Most of the current grid was built in the 1960s and 1970s and was designed to bring electricity generated by fossil fuel power plants, large hydroelectric facilities and nuclear power plants to areas that need power. This approach has served the United States very well over the decades, but in recent years there has been a big push to make renewable energy, primarily wind and solar, a much larger part of the nation’s generation mix. USA And since many of the country’s best sites for large-scale wind and solar projects are far from population centers, that means more long-distance transmission lines will be needed to move that energy to where it’s needed.
