Electricity superhighways on the horizon
One of the key energy challenges still facing our country is the long-haul transmission of renewable energy from the rural heartlands to the urban load centers: essentially, moving the abundance of potential in wind energy and solar power to areas of high need.
What’s holding this up, frankly, is the immense difficulty in siting high-voltage overhead AC and DC power lines. From NIMBY to BANANA, the response is clear: not near me, not if I can help it. Not with hundreds of feet of right-of-way necessary, and the concerns about eminent domain, electromagnetic fields (EMF), property devaluation and more top-of-mind. These days, a new transmission line can take from seven to 10 years to site and deploy – not good news from the federal government’s perspective.
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