What Google and a $5B transmission line can do for the wind industry

The renewable energy industry knows all too well that one of the greatest hurdles to its growth is the nation’s outdated transmission system. While the government hasn’t jumped on the issue as quickly as the industry would like, major companies such as Google are taking steps to expand lines and transport electricity.

The mid-Atlantic regions holds 20% of the U.S. population, but the region has limited access to land-based renewable-energy resources. Reuters recently reported that Google and its partners (Good Energies, a private firm, and Japan’s Marubeni Corp.) have cleared the first major hurdle with U.S. regulators to build a $5 billion transmission line that would transport electricity from wind farms off the Atlantic coast. According to the article, the companies backing the project can earn a 12.59% return on their equity investment in the proposed power line, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled.

The project consists of two parallel transmission lines stretching from northern New Jersey to southern Virginia, and could transport up to 6,000 MW of electricity that would provide power to 1.9 million households. Electricity carried by the 250-mi lines would connect with the main electric grid at onshore sites in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

The project still needs the Interior Department’s approval, as well as permission from several state agencies and the regional power grid operator, PJM. The companies hope to have the first phase of the transmission line operating in 2016.

Reuter’s reports that project sponsors commented in a filing with FERC, ”Without a strong transmission backbone, offshore wind developers would need to build one or more individual radial transmission lines from each offshore wind project to the shore.

There are no major offshore wind farms operating in the United States at the moment, though more than a dozen have been proposed. One of the earliest projects expected to come online is Cape Wind off Massachusetts that will consist of 130 wind towers providing electricity to about 400,000 homes by 2013.

Google to finance off shore connection cable

Google executives have signed an agreement to invest in development of a backbone power-transmission project off the Mid-Atlantic coast that offers a financial return while helping accelerate offshore wind development. The new project will create thousands of jobs, says Google, improve consumer access to clean energy sources, and increase the reliability of the Mid-Atlantic region’s existing power grid.

When built out, the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone will stretch 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia and will be able to connect 6,000 MW of offshore wind turbines. That’s equivalent to 60% of the wind energy installed in the entire country last year. The AWC backbone will be built around offshore power hubs that will collect the power from multiple offshore wind farms and deliver it efficiently by sub-sea cables to the strongest, highest capacity parts of the land-based transmission system. The system will act as a superhighway for clean energy. By putting strong, secure transmission in place, the project removes a major barrier to scaling up offshore wind, an industry that despite its potential, only had its first federal lease signed recently and still has no operating projects in the U.S.

Locating the project offshore wind and in the Mid-Atlantic makes good sense. Many coastal areas in the U.S. have large populations but limited access to a high-quality land-based wind resource. Coastal states can take advantage of their most promising renewable resource by using larger wind farms with larger turbines that can take advantage of stronger and steadier winds offshore.

The Mid-Atlantic region is ideal for offshore wind. It offers more than 60,000 MW of offshore wind potential in relatively shallow waters that extend miles out to sea. These shallow waters make it easier to install turbines 10 to 15 miles offshore, meaning wind projects can take advantage of stronger winds and are almost out-of-sight from land.

Google Inc

google.com

Google Dips Its Hands Into $38.8 Million Of Wind Power

Google made its first direct investment in a utility-scale renewable energy project — two wind farms that generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to power more than 55,000 homes. These wind farms, developed by NextEra Energy Resources, harness power from one of the world’s richest wind resources in the North Dakota plains and use existing transmission capacity to deliver clean energy to the region, reducing the use of fossil fuels. Through this $38.8 million investment, Google is aiming to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy — in a way that makes good business sense, too.

To reach a clean energy future, Google needs three things: effective policy, innovative technology and smart capital. Through Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, Google has been pushing for energy policies that strengthen the innovation pipeline, and Google has been dedicating resources to developing new technologies, including making investments in early-stage renewable energy companies such as eSolar and AltaRock. Smart capital includes not only these early-stage company investments, but also dedicated funding for utility-scale projects. To tackle this need, Google has been looking at investments in renewable energy projects, like the one Google just signed, that can accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology while providing attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects.

Google says that it’s excited about this first project investment because it uses some of the latest wind turbine technology and control systems to provide one of the lowest-cost sources of renewable energy to the local grid. The turbines can continuously adjust the individual blade pitch angles to achieve optimal efficiency and use larger blades with 15 percent more swept area than earlier generations, allowing capture of even more wind energy for each turbine. The control systems for these wind farms are also advanced and dynamic, allowing for remote 24/7 monitoring and operation to ensure maximum turbine up-time and power production. A couple of us got a chance to climb 80 meters up one of the 113 turbines to see firsthand how the rotating blade motion goes through a gearbox to turn the generator that makes the electricity.

googleblog.blogspot.com