Clean energy transmission: The missing link

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Wind turbines, solar panels, hybrid vehicles and energy-efficient buildings are the symbols of a clean energy future. They can help us revive the economy, develop abundant domestic clean energy resources, use energy more efficiently, slash our costly dependence on imported fossil fuels, and tackle urgent environmental problems such as global warming.

But one essential piece is too often missing from this vision: transmission. Renewable electricity sources need transmission lines to move power from the point of generation to markets.

Transmission lines are not nearly as popular as other clean energy solutions. We don’t like the way they look; they can disturb sensitive natural areas; and they carry big price tags that are tough to swallow in lean economic times. But without transmission lines, we can’t develop the immense and largely untapped renewable resources that are located far from America’s population centers. Unlike coal and natural gas, wind and sunlight cannot be moved in rail cars or pipelines or stored in bins or tanks.

A recent study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) examined what would be needed to produce 20 percent - 30 percent of electricity in the eastern U.S. from wind by 2024. The answer in every case was not just new turbines — and lots of them — but "transmission infrastructure upgrades for which planning should start immediately." NREL also concluded that renewable energy works best when planned and managed over large areas — all but impossible today.

A challenge of this magnitude is much more than our current system for planning, paying for, and locating electric transmission lines can handle. A byzantine patchwork of utilities, regional transmission organizations, and state and federal agencies governs the process.

Transmission policy reform must be part of the energy bill now moving through Congress. The Senate Energy Committee has approved legislation that builds on current efforts toward broader regional transmission planning. To ensure that only needed transmission is built, planners would have to explore alternatives to transmission, such as energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, and smart grid upgrades. Public policy goals like renewable energy standards and greenhouse gas emissions targets would also be considered.

Transmission accounts for only 7 percent of the average electric bill, but an amendment offered by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and adopted in committee would impose unworkable and unprecedented tests for allocating the cost of transmission lines broadly among consumers. The coalition of mostly coal-powered utilities supporting the Corker amendment would force renewable energy developers to bear the full costs of new transmission — thus keeping renewable energy out of their markets.

Advocates for a clean energy future have recognized the need for policy reform. The Energy Future Coalition has built a diverse group of supporters for Clean Energy Transmission, among them more than 50 signatories to a March 25 letter to Senate leaders, including the Sierra Club, the Renewable Northwest Project, Iberdrola Renewables, and the Blue-Green Alliance. Similarly, the positive response to our July 14 expert forum in Portland has been overwhelming.

Transmission is not only part of our clean energy future, it is one of several keys to making that future possible. We look forward to working with everyone in the Northwest to stay on the path to reach it.

Bill White is Senior Vice President at David Gardiner & Associates and manages the National Clean Energy Transmission Initiative for the Energy Future Coalition.