Electricity demand is rising and we must cut climate pollution, but more than 2,000 gigawatts of new clean energy projects are stuck waiting in the interconnection queue. If that power is ready to go and so desperately needed, what’s taking so long? One big obstacle stands in the way—lack of transmission access. New research from Energy Innovation, GridLab, and UC Berkeley highlights a new technology that can be part of the solution, along with figuring out how to build new lines faster: reconductoring with advanced conductors.
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The 2035 Report: Reconductoring With Advanced Conductors Can Accelerate The Rapid Transmission Expansion Required For A Clean Grid
Building new transmission can take over a decade, and our rate of grid expansion is falling woefully short. But there’s a way to keep making progress in the near-term. Retrofitting existing power lines with advanced conductors (aka reconductoring) is a ready-to-deploy technology that can help new clean energy projects come online. Stringing advanced conductors on existing transmission towers expands the grid without needing to secure new rights of way and can free up clean energy projects stuck waiting to connect. It also creates major benefits, including quadrupling the current pace of nationwide transmission build-out and cutting the cost of a 90 percent clean grid $85 billion by 2035.
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