Posted on 10/13/2009 10:21:56 AM PDT by shove_it
Clovis, New Mexico, might just be the cornerstone of a clean-energy revolution. It might also be the epicenter of a political battle over how America embraces green energy.
Clovis is the site chosen for the Tres Amigas electricity-transmission project, as our colleague Rebecca Smith reports today in The Wall Street Journal. The idea is to build a powerful substation in New Mexico using advanced supercondctors that could physically connect the three otherwise isolated power grids—the Eastern, the Western, and Texas grids.
The project, which could take five years to finish, seeks to remedy one of the problems with renewable energy: Places with lots of sun and wind are in the middle of the country, while electricity demand is strongest on the coasts.
“Tres Amigas will serve as a renewable energy market hub by connecting all three of America’s power grids to enable the transfer of green power from region to region,” said Phil Harris, chief executive of Tres Amigas.
The problem is that not every region wants to see the Midwest (for wind) and the southwest (for solar power) turn into the clean-energy breadbasket. Eastern states, in particular, are leery about hitching their electricity future to other states.
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(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
NM ping
The trick will be persuading anyone to move to Clovis to work.
Related article about new wood burning power plants. Just burning up the "fertilizer" for the forest.
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