Besides transmission line upgrades, another solution is to store the curtailed energy in batteries or other energy storage technologies.
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The Department of Energy is boosting transmission lines in New England and the Intermountain West â a small step in solving a big barrier to clean energy.
30 October 2023
The Biden administration has a multifaceted plan to speed construction of the transmission lines needed to decarbonize the U.S. grid. Part of that plan: offering loans to bridge the gap between securing financing to build transmission projects and lining up the buyers of the clean energy theyâre meant to deliver.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy unveiled plans to loan a total of $1.3 billion to three long-range transmission projects for just this purpose. Itâs the first-ever award under the $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program created by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. But according to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, itâs far from the last.
Thatâs because the program is ââbasically a revolving fund that allows for the Department of Energy to be sort of an anchor tenant on these lines,â Granholm said in a Friday briefing ahead of the public announcement. Rather than lending money for each projectâs construction and financing costs, DOE is signing ââcapacity contractsâ equal to payment for up to half of the total electricity supplies each line is capable of providing.
The chosen projects are utility National Gridâs 1.2-gigawatt Twin States Clean Energy Link between New England and Quebec, Canada; TransCanyonâs 1.5-gigawatt Cross-Tie Transmission Line between Utah and Nevada; and Grid United and Black Forest Partnersâ 1-gigawatt Southline Transmission Project between New Mexico and Arizona.
DOE wonât actually buy the electricity from these projects, Granholm emphasized. Instead, the loans are meant to help them ââachieve the financing necessaryâ to move ahead and begin construction, she said.
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As offered before, the US utility companies will improve their grids, as soon as the government pays them to, with a profit. I fully expect that, once the âloansâ are granted, the drumbeat will start to forgive the loans.
Steve
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Maybe true. That said, there is no free lunch. Youâre going to pay for either through rate increases or by taxes/forgiven loans, so complain if itâs not necessary, not if you have to pay for it.
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EV chargers, heat pumps may be curtailed in Germany as of 2024
https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/news/ev-chargers-heat-pumps-may-be-curtailed-in-germany-as-of-2024/?mc_cid=6c02ac65d1
Across Europe, investments into grids are lagging behind whatâs needed as the continent embraces heat pumps and electric vehicles.
âWaiting time for permits for grid reinforcements are between 4-10 years, and 8-10 years for high voltages,â the European Commission said on Tuesday (28 November) as it unveiled a new Action Plan to accelerate the deployment of electricity gridsâŚ
In Germany, the network regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur , is now taking steps to throttle the electricity delivered to EVs and heat pumps to alleviate pressure on the gridâŚ
MĂźller is walking a tightrope: keeping the lights on while integrating 500,000 new heat pumps every year and 15 million EVs by 2030. But he also has new powers to do this, thanks to a recent ruling by the EU court of justice which boosted its independance.
DB2
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Small projects as wellâŚ
The dairy barn at The Farm School in Athol is home to about a dozen cows, a few small rooms filled with cold tanks and pasteurizing equipment, and, most days, classes of Boston-area middle schoolers learning about work, farming, and being good environmental stewards.
By now, the barn could also have been home to 88 solar panels to help power the farmâs operations and offer another lesson for visiting students â one about clean energy, and how everyone has to do their part to address the climate crisis.
But The Farm School has run into a hurdle thatâs tripping up communities, nonprofits and solar developers across the state: a maxed-out electric grid thatâs slowing Massachusettsâ progress on solar energy to a crawl at the very time that it ought to be soaring.
DB2
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Going forward, the countryâs 880 local grid operators wonât be able to block new heat pumps or wall-chargers for EVs in their service areas.
In exchange, they get to throttle the devices when power demand threatens âacute damage or overloading of the networkâ.
For that duration, devices will receive a trickle of 4.2 kilowatts per hour â on which heat pumps can continue running, and EVs can be charged for a 50-kilometre ride within two hours, the regulator says. Other household devices wonât be affected.
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That is not true. Some 40% of the power on the grid is wasted. The figure should be 10%, not 40%. We will save a lot of money as consumers.
Plus our factories will do better. This means our products will not be as inflationary in the long term. Our exporting will increase.
We make out like bandits with this.
This is why we had supply-side economics people had no clue what they were looking at. Simplistic looked attractive. Wrong bets from 1981 to 2020. Dumb bets. No money was put into what would be good for the entire nation.
Doubtful.
Maybe 4.2 kilowatt-hours per hour. Which would just be 4.2 kilowatts. Or it could be 8.4 kilowatts for a half hour then zero for a half hour.
Units matter
Mike
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