If You Love Wind

If you love wind, you’ve got to at least like transmission — or so I was told earlier this summer (by someone! please remind me who you were … ). Texas is moving ahead with nearly $5 billion in new transmission lines to accommodate electricity generated by wind turbines. But conditions don’t seem nearly as ripe for approving such investments and infrastructure in more crowded regions, where demand for electricity is highest, according to Matt Wald’s latest article on wind and the grid. The $320-million Maple Ridge turbine complex on New York’s windy Tug Hill plateau finds itself having to shut down periodically, when the transmission cables in the region become too clogged, he writes.

Plenty of opposition to the turbines themselves has appeared, even in rural areas, but robust opposition to building new conduits for getting energy from sources to markets, whether the medium is pipelines carrying natural gas or wires for electrons, has been seen for decades. This country has a lot of work to do to match power with markets if it’s serious about moving away from the fuel of convenience, coal. Many energy campaigners, including Plug In America (promoting plug-in hybrids), are prowling the corridors at the Democratic National Convention this week. Presumably they’ll be talking about wires as well as cars. Is anyone listening?