A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) calls for 50 million miles of new power lines to meet carbon emission reduction targets.
“Reaching national goals also means adding or refurbishing a total of over 80 million kilometres of grids by 2040,” the report says.
It explains that this is the “equivalent of the entire existing global grid.”
“To meet national climate targets, grid investment needs to nearly double by 2030 to over USD 600 billion per year after over a decade of stagnation at the global level, with emphasis on digitalising and modernising distribution grids,” the report adds.
The report explains that expanding grids requires “supply chains and a skilled workforce.”
“Governments can support the expansion of supply chains by creating firm and transparent project pipelines and by standardising procurement and technical installations. They also need to build in future flexibility by ensuring interoperability of all the different elements of the system.”
The Biden administration recently announced $3.46 billion for “58 projects across 44 states to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability across America.”
“Extreme weather events fueled by climate change will continue to strain the nation’s aging transmission systems, but President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will ensure America’s power grid can provide reliable, affordable power,” said U.S Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm on OCtober 18. “Today’s announcement represents the largest-ever direct investment in critical grid infrastructure, supporting projects that will harden systems, improve energy reliability and affordability—all while generating union jobs for highly skilled workers.”
Reporting from Just the News:
The U.S. currently has about 240,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. That doesn’t include 5.5 million miles of local distribution lines. If the U.S. were to triple the miles of high-voltage transmission lines, that would equal about 720,000 miles of transmission that need to be built. ... Meredith Angwin, a chemist and author of “Shorting The Grid,” told Just The News that the challenges are likely insurmountable. Blackouts are going to become more common as the U.S. tries to power an energy-hungry grid on more and more intermittent resources. At the same time, electricity rates are going to go up as the cost of all the infrastructure build out gets passed down to consumers. “It's very close to impossible to run a modern civilization on wind and solar. And so it isn't going to happen,” Angwin said. She added that besides the technical challenges to this massive build out of transmission lines, there are the environmental impacts that aren’t being considered. All those steel towers will affect wildlife and the natural landscape.
