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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Ageing grid threatens US renewable energy progress
10/5/2023
6 min read
A disjointed and elderly electricity transmission grid, hobbled by a complex planning and regulatory system, threatens the expansion of renewable energy in the US. Stephenie Overman, in Washington DC, reports.
To unlock the full emissions reduction potential of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a report from Princeton University’s Zero-Carbon Energy Systems Research and Optimization Laboratory (Zero Lab) finds that ‘the pace of [electricity] transmission expansion must more than double the rate over the last decade’.
Among the goals of the IRA is that the US enjoys 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a zero-emissions economy by 2050. But renewable energy projects that might help meet those goals are stuck waiting in queues – in part because of a weak grid and rigid bureaucratic controls.
If electricity transmission cannot be expanded fast enough, the Zero Lab report finds that ‘power sector emissions and associated pollution could increase significantly as gas and coal-fired power plants produce more to meet growing demand from electric vehicles and other electrification spurred by the US’ new climate change law’.