The United States has been called the Saudi Arabia of wind, but transmission line deficiencies might keep the nation from achieving its wind energy goals.
An Energy Department (DoE) study estimated that as much as 20 percent of the nation’s electricity could come from wind. Renewable energy of all types now supplies less than 3 percent to the grid.
But without enough transmission lines to carry the energy from the windy but remote regions where it is produced to the cities that consume it, wind power will continue to play a relatively small role in the nation’s energy mix, according to testimony this week at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which was billed as the first-ever congressional hearing on the transmission obstacles to more wind development.
Energy Department officials have said the lack of transmission capacity is the biggest impediment to greater development of wind power.
