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The U.S. Lags Behind in Transmission Projects
Here’s a disturbing fact I learned this morning: Since 2014, China has built 260 gigawatts of transmission capacity that has come on line or will in the next few years. In that same time frame, the United States has added just 3 gigawatts.
Transmission isn’t sexy, but it’s fundamental to reaching our carbon cutting goals. Inconveniently, many of this country’s areas richest in wind and sun are far from the urban centers that consume most power. We need to connect them.
The good news is there are a lot of projects underway. But, as the same Bloomberg article makes clear, it is hard to get approval in the USA for a transmission project. In China, there’s no democratic process to slow things down. Here, on the other hand, concerned citizens and the politicians who represent them have to be won over.
The fact that such a transmission line positive article is in Bloomberg is a good sign. However, we’ll need much more where this came from.
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