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Clean energy hubs and electricity transmission challenges
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President Obama is a powerful CEO covering several industries.
Creating a consensus among State governors and utility coalitions is no small task, but if renewable energy is going to grow its market share in the energy industry it will have to be done.
Both renewable energy's regional nature and its baseload characterisitics require governors to size-up and build-out the defining energy potential in their regions, and it requires utility companies to rewrite regulations freeing up interstate electrical energy flow.
Wind, solar, biofuel, and geothermal energy come from four unique physical processes occuring in nature and are dispersed across the U.S. in plentiful nature. The greatest wind resources are in the upper Plains; the best solar potential is in the desert southwest; biofuel feedstocks depend upon soil, rainfall patterns, and sun exposure and can vary from grasses to woods to waste; geothermal is located near geothermal hotspots in the West. Governors across the U.S. will be involved in building out related, but technologically very different sectors of the energy industry.
Energy hubs located around these regional energy sources requires a team-based approach to politics. Coordinating affairs within the overall federal energy policy and individual states as governors delegate funds to support regional power development requires a consensus around the objectives of the mission. If the U.S. is going to move toward energy independence, governors will need to work together defining sustainable energy development practices and aggressively transition to renewable energy power sources.
Regional energy, once generated, currently does not have an easy way of traversing long distances in our country. Right now, regional grids do not conect to a central transmission highway to move, say, solar energy from the southwest desert to coastal cities or wind energy from the Great Plains to cities nearby. Energy is 'trapped' within regions due to outdated and unuseful regulations regarding electrical energy transmission.
Building a central energy transmission system like the interstate road system would be beneficial for our country even if we don't begin making the transition to renewable energy soon. With a central ETS, we can develop regional energy hubs that all link together to created the national energy index.
If we are waiting for some sort of disruptive technology to enter the energy marketplace, we might have to start holding our breath soon. Instead of a singular energy source powering a specific technology, a broad array of energy possibilities will be available. While recharging the battery on our car, someone in Oregon might get their electricity from geothermal resources while someone in Arizona from, Wisconsin from wind, and Georgia from biomass; once the national grid is established and regional resources are interlinked, an energy matrix develops and from its diversity irons out intermittencies and becomes reliable.
A national energy policy favoring emission regulations will signal the official creation of the regional energy national matrix, but signals from many western governors are indicating that these renewable energy partnerships between governors and utility company representatives are already developing.
The national debate regarding renewable energy, in some cases does not reflect the regional majority's opinion. In those areas where businesses, communities, and individuals have already benefitted from renewable energy, federal mandates can be limiting. California is a perfect example of this, raising their fuel efficiency standards above federal norms. In California's case, the benefit was an improvement in air quality that the state was seeking.
Creating these energy hubs is a decade long project; connecting to and upgrading the grid, at the very least will take another 20-30 years. President Obama is attempting, as CEO of the energy industry, to change the makeup of the American energy consumption curve. While building efficiency, weatherization, demand response, and other smart grid applications can reduce overall energy use, generating energy from renewable sources slows the rates of environmental degradation. If President Obama is successful in getting his energy agenda approved, American businesses will be interpreting his vision for the next 100 years while they try to implement the plan.
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