XPost: alt.society.liberalism, misc.industry.utilities.electric, sci.energy   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: nimo@click.it   
      
   An explosion in proposed clean energy ventures has overwhelmed the system   
   for connecting new power sources to homes and businesses.   
      
   Plans to install 3,000 acres of solar panels in Kentucky and Virginia are   
   delayed for years. Wind farms in Minnesota and North Dakota have been   
   abruptly canceled. And programs to encourage Massachusetts and Maine   
   residents to adopt solar power are faltering.   
      
   The energy transition poised for takeoff in the United States amid record   
   investment in wind, solar and other low-carbon technologies is facing a   
   serious obstacle: The volume of projects has overwhelmed the nation’s   
   antiquated systems to connect new sources of electricity to homes and   
   businesses.   
      
   So many projects are trying to squeeze through the approval process that   
   delays can drag on for years, leaving some developers to throw up their   
   hands and walk away.   
      
   More than 8,100 energy projects — the vast majority of them wind, solar   
   and batteries — were waiting for permission to connect to electric grids   
   at the end of 2021, up from 5,600 the year before, jamming the system   
   known as interconnection.   
      
   That’s the process by which electricity generated by wind turbines or   
   solar arrays is added to the grid — the network of power lines and   
   transformers that moves electricity from the spot where it is created to   
   cities and factories. There is no single grid; the United States has   
   dozens of electric networks, each overseen by a different authority.   
      
   PJM Interconnection, which operates the nation’s largest regional grid,   
   stretching from Illinois to New Jersey, has been so inundated by   
   connection requests that last year it announced a freeze on new   
   applications until 2026, so that it can work through a backlog of   
   thousands of proposals, mostly for renewable energy.   
      
   It now takes roughly four years, on average, for developers to get   
   approval, double the time it took a decade ago.   
      
   And when companies finally get their projects reviewed, they often face   
   another hurdle: the local grid is at capacity, and they are required to   
   spend much more than they planned for new transmission lines and other   
   upgrades.   
      
   Many give up. Fewer than one-fifth of solar and wind proposals actually   
   make it through the so-called interconnection queue, according to research   
   from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.   
      
   “From our perspective, the interconnection process has become the No. 1   
   project killer,” said Piper Miller, vice president of market development   
   at Pine Gate Renewables, a major solar power and battery developer.   
      
   After years of breakneck growth, large-scale solar, wind and battery   
   installations in the United States fell 16 percent in 2022, according to   
   the American Clean Power Association, a trade group. It blamed supply   
   chain problems but also lengthy delays connecting projects to the grid.   
      
   Electricity production generates roughly one-quarter of the greenhouse   
   gases produced by the United States; cleaning it up is key to President   
   Biden’s plan to fight global warming. The landmark climate bill he signed   
   last year provides $370 billion in subsidies to help make low-carbon   
   energy technologies — like wind, solar, nuclear or batteries — cheaper   
   than fossil fuels.   
      
   But the law does little to address many practical barriers to building   
   clean energy projects, such as permitting holdups, local opposition or   
   transmission constraints. Unless those obstacles get resolved, experts   
   say, there’s a risk that billions in federal subsidies won’t translate   
   into the deep emissions cuts envisioned by lawmakers.   
      
   “It doesn’t matter how cheap the clean energy is,” said Spencer Nelson,   
   managing director of research at ClearPath Foundation, an energy-focused   
   nonprofit. “If developers can’t get through the interconnection process   
   quickly enough and get enough steel in the ground, we won’t hit our   
   climate change goals.”   
      
   Waiting in line for years   
   In the largest grids, such as those in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic, a   
   regional operator manages the byzantine flow of electricity from hundreds   
   of different power plants through thousands of miles of transmission lines   
   and into millions of homes.   
      
   Before a developer can build a power plant, the local grid operator must   
   make sure the project won’t cause disruptions — if, for instance, existing   
   power lines get more electricity than they can handle, they could overheat   
   and fail. After conducting a detailed study, the grid operator might   
   require upgrades, such as a line connecting the new plant to a nearby   
   substation. The developer usually bears this cost. Then the operator moves   
   on to study the next project in the queue.   
      
   This process was fairly routine when energy companies were building a few   
   large coal or gas plants each year. But it has broken down as the number   
   of wind, solar and battery projects has risen sharply over the past   
   decade, driven by falling costs, state clean-energy mandates and, now,   
   hefty federal subsidies.   
      
   “The biggest challenge is just the sheer volume of projects,” said Ken   
   Seiler, who leads system planning at PJM Interconnection. “There are only   
   so many power engineers out there who can do the sophisticated studies we   
   need to do to ensure the system stays reliable, and everyone else is   
   trying to hire them, too.”   
      
   PJM, the grid operator, now has 2,700 energy projects under study — mostly   
   wind, solar and batteries — a number that has tripled in just three years.   
   Wait times can now reach four years or more, which prompted PJM last year   
   to pause new reviews and overhaul its processes.   
      
   Delays can upend the business models of renewable energy developers. As   
   time ticks by, rising materials costs can erode a project’s viability.   
   Options to buy land expire. Potential customers lose interest.   
      
   Two years ago, Silicon Ranch, a solar power developer, applied to PJM for   
   permission to connect three 100-megawatt solar projects in Kentucky and   
   Virginia, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. The company, which   
   often pairs its solar arrays with sheep grazing, had negotiated purchase   
   options with local landowners for thousands of acres of farmland.   
      
   Today, that land is sitting empty. Silicon Ranch hasn’t received feedback   
   from PJM and now estimates it may not be able to bring those solar farms   
   online until 2028 or 2029. That creates headaches: The company may have to   
   decide whether to buy the land before it even knows whether its solar   
   arrays will be approved.   
      
   “It’s frustrating,” said Reagan Farr, the chief executive of Silicon   
   Ranch. “We always talk about how important it is for our industry to   
   establish trust and credibility with local communities. But if you come in   
   and say you’re going to invest, and then nothing happens for years, it’s   
   not an optimal situation.”   
      
   PJM soon plans to speed up its queues — for instance, by studying projects   
   in clusters rather than one at a time — but needs to clear its backlog   
   first.   
      
   ‘Imagine if we paid for highways this way’   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)