Why is Missouri Holding Up a High-Voltage Transmission Line for Wind Energy?
“More renewable energy will be necessary to meet federal and state air quality and climate goals and reduce reliance on polluting fossil fuel power plants, the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States. But it’s not just a question of producing clean energy—it needs to be transmitted as well.
Wind energy, supplying 35 percent of the nation’s supply of renewable energy for electricity generation, is second only to hydropower, according to the Energy Information Administration. It supplies seven times the amount of energy of solar power. [See EIA image.]
One of the main impediments to increasing wind energy is that energy sources are located far from population centers, thus transmission lines are critical to increasing the spread of this zero-emission energy.
According to the project’s website, “the Grain Belt Express Clean Line will deliver approximately 4,000 megawatts of low-cost wind power from western Kansas to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and neighboring states that have strong demand for clean, reliable energy.””
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Dawid, Irvin. Planetzen 29 June 2016.