DOE Loan Guarantee for New Southwest Transmission Project
Major Mid-Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Project Announced
DOI Approves First Solar Project on Nevada Public Lands
ACEEE Energy Efficiency Scorecard Cites State Leaders
U.S. Mayors Attend Swedish Green Conference
EPA Grants E15 Fuel Waiver for Newer Vehicles
EIA: Home Heating Costs to Increase Slightly This Winter
DOE Offers Loan Guarantee for Southwest Transmission Project
DOE announced on October 19 its offer of a conditional commitment for a $350 million loan guarantee to develop the One Nevada Transmission Line (ON Line).
ON Line is a new 500-kilovolt transmission line that will run 235 miles from Ely, Nevada to just north of Las Vegas. The project will carry approximately 600 MW of electricity, including renewable energy, in northern Nevada. It will also integrate existing transmission systems in northern and southern Nevada, improving grid reliability and efficiency, and reducing power costs. This is the first transmission line project to be offered a commitment by DOE's Loan Programs Office.
The ON Line project will be the first phase of the Southwest Intertie Project which, when fully completed, will carry approximately 2,000 MW of electricity and will enable wind and solar resources in Wyoming, Idaho, and Nevada to power the Southwest and California markets. The ON Line project is expected to contract about 85% of its parts and labor from U.S.-based companies, and it will create about 400 construction jobs.
The DOE Loan Program Office has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 16 clean energy projects totaling $16.5 billion. See the DOE press release and the Loan Guarantee Program Web site.
Major Mid-Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Project Announced
A major wind transmission project, the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC), was announced October 12 by a group led by transmission company Trans-Elect and sponsored by Good Energies, Google Inc., and Marubeni Corporation, a Japanese trading firm.
The project, which is intended to boost offshore wind energy along the Mid-Atlantic Coast, will help create thousands of wind jobs, improve consumer access to clean energy sources, and increase the reliability of the region's existing power grid.
The project will connect 6,000 MW of offshore wind - enough to serve roughly 1.9 million households - and will be expandable to accommodate additional offshore wind as the industry further develops. The use of high-voltage direct current technology allows for easier integration and control of multiple wind farms while avoiding the electrical losses associated with more typical high-voltage alternating current lines.
With this strong backbone in place, larger and more energy efficient wind farms can connect to offshore power hubs farther out to sea. These power hubs will in turn be connected via sub-sea cables to the strongest, highest capacity parts of the land-based transmission system. The Mid-Atlantic region offers more than 60,000 MW of offshore wind potential in the relatively shallow waters of the outer continental shelf.
Before construction can begin, the project will need approval from federal, state, regional, and local regulators as well as from PJM Interconnection, the region's grid operator. See the press release on the AWC Web site.
