Demand for electricity in the Northwest is expected to grow at its fastest pace in decades. (Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)
Planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution could dramatically drop in the West if a dozen electrical energy transmission projects currently proposed or being built are completed in the next five years, a new report found.
It said that the 12 projects – adding 3,000 miles of new energy transmission across 14 states – could reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity in the region by 73% compared with 2005 levels once complete. This is because the expanded grid would spur the development of renewable energy projects powered by wind and solar. The findings, published Sept. 13, come from researchers at the U.S.Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
But expansion of the region’s energy and transmission is lagging, according to officials at the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, a nonprofit organization based in Salt Lake City that ensures grid connection and reliability in the West. By the end of last year, about half of the new energy and transmission projects anticipated for the West had been completed. This was due in large part to supply chain issues, prices and labor shortages, according to Branden Sudduth, the commission’s vice president of reliability planning.