![]() ![]() An estimated 70% of transmission lines in the US are more than 25 years old. Inflation Reduction Act provides some hopeĪs the aging US grid struggles to cope with increasingly frequent severe weather events, there are question marks over whether it can handle the demands of the energy transition. Prolonged setbacks could see materials get more expensive, land options expire and customers to sell the power to lose interest. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, less than a quarter of wind and solar projects that seek a grid connection in the US actually end up operating. Spiraling costs and years-long delays are leading some developers to just give up and walk away. For renewables projects in PJM and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator – two regional power markets in the US – the average interconnection cost hit $120 per kilowatt between 20, some 65% higher than 2015 to 2019. The required upgrades mean the cost of getting a connection to the grid is rising. Rather than taking a proactive approach to preparing the grid, it is currently being fixed bit by bit as new projects come along. It’s not just about more cables and wires, they need to be located in the right place, and this is changing as solar and wind farms crop up in different areas of the country to traditional coal and gas plants. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has proposed two major reforms to streamline interconnection queues and encourage grid operators to do more long-term planning. Building long-distance transmission in the US is challenging in the absence of a federal authority empowered to approve such infrastructure. The problem is particularly acute in the US where the patchwork of now-antiquated grids was designed around a system reliant on fossil-fuel-powered electricity generation and planning for a renewables-led future doesn’t take a holistic view. US held back by a fragmented and outdated grid But they get bogged down in assessments of how the new capacity will impact the wider network and what reinforcements to existing infrastructure will need to be made. In an ideal world, developers would apply for permission, receive the green light, build their project and connect to the grid. ![]() Projects can end up being stuck in an interconnection queue for years. Put another way, if all the wind and solar farms in limbo were built and connected to the grid, they would add up to more than the present electricity generation capacity of the US. Over 500 gigawatts of wind is also waiting to be plugged into the grid, five times as much as was built in 2022. There’s almost 1,000 gigawatts of solar projects stuck in the interconnection queue across the US and Europe, close to four times the amount of new solar capacity installed around the world last year. The pivotal role of the grid is evident in the bottlenecks getting new clean energy capacity connected. Grids will also be at the heart of enabling the charging network to accelerate the electric vehicle revolution, scaling up energy storage to complement intermittent renewables, and powering the electrolyzers that split water to produce green hydrogen. While solar and wind will undoubtedly be the stars of the energy transition, new renewables capacity is useless without the infrastructure to transport that clean electricity from where it’s produced to the end user. That’s more than double the length of the grid today. If you deconstruct the electricity grid and lay it out in a single line, those cables will stretch all the way to the Sun.Ī 152-million-kilometer supersized grid is what’s needed to power a greener future and avert climate disaster, according to BloombergNEF. Our fantastic, hard working team has proudly received numerous awards, industry endorsements, and certifications from respected organisations.Imagine it’s 2050 and the world has managed to reach net-zero emissions. We value honesty and integrity in our staff, and always strive to exceed expectations. We understand the responsibility of providing reliable power, and being available 24/7 to troubleshoot. We have hundreds of happy battery storage customers across Australia. When you ask us for a customer reference, we can provide someone with an off-grid system just like yours. Our expert technicians ensure these pitfalls are avoided. Inferior off-grid systems provide frustratingly unreliable power and a costly short system life due to poor sizing, mismatched equipment, non-compliant design, and unsafe installation. There is a world of difference in the quality of system components, so we make sure we only source the very best. It’s unwise to make compromises when you are energy independent. Our head technician has been designing off-grid systems since 2002, and our core team has been working with battery systems since 2006. Installing battery storage isn’t as simple as installing plain solar.
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