Lack of New Transmission Lines Threaten Renewable Growth. By Nichola Groom, Reuters, June 23, 2008. "While companies scramble to drive down the price of power produced by sun and wind, many say a dearth of transmission lines in remote areas ideal for wind farms and solar plants is a bigger impediment than cost to spurring U.S. growth of renewable energy. Demand is soaring for renewable energy projects to help reduce both pollutants and consumption of ever-costlier fossil fuels. At issue for developers of wind and solar projects, however, is that the resources to power them are most abundant in sparsely populated areas such as the Southwest's sun-baked Mojave Desert and the blustery plains of the Midwest. Building lines to channel that clean electricity to urban areas will be no small task, and renewable energy executives at [the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York] this week warned that many planned solar and wind projects may never see the light of day if policymakers do not expand power grids to accommodate them. 'Unless we figure out a way to move capital into transmission, moving power from the Dakotas to Chicago or from the Mojave to Los Angeles is going to be a great dream,' [said] Dan Reicher... of Google's green energy push. He added that the progress of new transmission 'in many respects will define whether 2% or 20% of U.S. electricity is renewable."
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