Obama's renewable energy transition: cart before the horse?

Representative image of US electric power grid transmission lines (timenauts.com)

The Obama Administration and Democratic members of Congress are serious about addressing renewable energy and climate change. This message was clearly stated at the Clean Power: Building a New Clean Energy Economy policy forum hosted by MIT recently. U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) stated that he and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) will begin holding hearings next week on their energy bill introduced last month. The legislation, which was the main topic of the forum, includes the establishment of a national renewable portfolio standard (RPS), guidelines for a carbon-based emissions cap, and trade system, while also requiring Green job education and training programs. The RPS is critical for dictating a target amount of power to be generated by renewable in the future, which should be facilitated by the carbon-based emissions reduction in the plan.  

Hearings on the federal American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 have already begun, and three members of President Barack Obama's cabinet, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson will testify before the house committee about the benefits of the bill for the renewable energy industry and global climate change improvements. The hearings are also emphasizing the fact that while renewable energy now accounts for only three percent of U.S. electricity production, the bill is expected to double that capacity in at least four years.  

The vast expansion of wind and solar power planned by the Obama administration and congressional leaders will be hindered by the nation's aged electricity network, as confirmed recently by a report conducted by grid monitors for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The limiting factor in renewable power growth is the inability to add sufficient transmission lines to accommodate new wind, solar and other renewable generation resources. NERC has stated that integrating renewable power will require new, complex computer models to anticipate, monitor and respond to the unpredictable nature of weather that can suddenly alter electricity output from wind or solar stations. Sophisticated new power flow monitors and controls will be needed as well. However, advances in battery storage and the use of flywheel storage may facilitate the incorporation of wind and solar units on the US power grid.

Interestingly enough, the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that insufficient transmission was the biggest obstacle to meeting 20% of U.S. Electricity demand required from wind in several initiatives by 2030. In addition, a report on the issue of transmission developed by the American Wind Energy Association and other related groups show that almost 300,000 MW of wind projects, more than enough to meet 20% of our electricity needs, are already waiting to be connected to the grid, but there is inadequate transmission line capacity for linkage to the US grid. Even though more than three-fourths of the nation’s electricity demand is derived from coastal states, and the wind potential off the coasts of the lower 48 states actually exceeds our entire U.S. electricity demand- the transmission line problem remains.

The initiative from the Obama Administration for building offshore wind projects along the eastern and western US coast appears to be getting “the cart before the horse” at this point. Fortunately, countries such as Germany and Spain are far-advanced compared to the United States in renewable energy implementation for their national grids and have set a clear example for us to consider.

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For more info:  http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/ and Solar Electric Industry Association site