Hot Webinar on Power Transmission

I try to stay up on the more exciting goings on in power transmission because of its obvious relationship to the penetration of clean energy generally. Less than 2% of our current grid-mix in the US is renewables at this point, and so such issues like smart-grid, high-voltage DC, unification of the three major US grids (600 gigawatts in the east, 240 gigawatts in the west, and 70 gigawatts in Texas) – as well as related areas like energy storage – are all but moot at this point. But, if we’re serious about installing more wind and PV – not to mention geothermal, run-of-river hydro, solar thermal, etc., this whole subject will soon become critically important.

If you’d like to check out a good webinar on the subject, here’s the link. The two main subjects under discussion are:

An effort to unify the currently independent grids in the continental US. Until this is done, btw, we’re really at a loss to move the vast amounts of solar energy from the deserts and wind energy from the plains to the population centers, balancing the load as the power levels from the renewable resources fluctuate throughout the day.

and

An offshore transmission backbone, enabling the installation of 6 gigawatts of wind, 15 miles off the mid-Atlantic coast, stretching from Northern New Jersey to Northern Virginia. The project it out of sight from land, and outside of recreational boating and migrating birds and aquatic mammals.  And because of the nature of the continental shelf; you can be 20 – 25 miles from land and still be in less than 100 feet of water — idea for offshore wind.

Hope you enjoy.