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From Maine to California, Investors Build Own Green-Power Lines
For free access to articles in The Wall Street Journal., trying going in through the authors' Twitter feeds.
From Maine to California, Investors Build Own Green-Power Lines
Link to tweet
Investors Are Building Their Own Green-Power Lines
Billionaires want to move renewable power from the plains to big cities; red tape blocks progress
By Russell Gold
April 6, 2017 5:30 a.m. ET
What if the wind sweeping down the plains of Wyoming could be harnessed to generate enough electricity to power the city of Los Angeles? ... It soon could, thanks to a $9 billion wind farm and electricity superhighway backed by billionaire Philip Anschutz —one of a series of transmission-line projects that private investors are bankrolling to bring renewable energy from America’s hinterlands to its urban centers.
Near Rawlins, in rural Wyoming, crews are prepping land near the state line with Colorado so they can build a 3,000-megawatt wind farm, which could be the largest ever constructed in the U.S.
Crucial for moving all that renewable power to market: Mr. Anschutz’s proposed 730-mile transmission line—a giant extension cord of sorts that will deliver the electricity to a point near Las Vegas. From there, the power can easily flow into Southern California’s grid. Mr. Anschutz isn’t the only wealthy investor pumping money into power-line projects in an effort to bring green energy to big cities. The Ziff family, whose fortune harks back to the glory days of magazine publishing, also is partly funding a green-power project between Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Altogether, these and other merchant-transmission projects could cost upward of $17 billion, plus at least a further $20 billion in wind, solar and hydro projects to fill these lines. There are no federal subsidies available for building transmission lines, though wind farm developers are eligible to tap a U.S. tax credit for building new production.
....
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com
Billionaires want to move renewable power from the plains to big cities; red tape blocks progress
By Russell Gold
April 6, 2017 5:30 a.m. ET
What if the wind sweeping down the plains of Wyoming could be harnessed to generate enough electricity to power the city of Los Angeles? ... It soon could, thanks to a $9 billion wind farm and electricity superhighway backed by billionaire Philip Anschutz —one of a series of transmission-line projects that private investors are bankrolling to bring renewable energy from America’s hinterlands to its urban centers.
Near Rawlins, in rural Wyoming, crews are prepping land near the state line with Colorado so they can build a 3,000-megawatt wind farm, which could be the largest ever constructed in the U.S.
Crucial for moving all that renewable power to market: Mr. Anschutz’s proposed 730-mile transmission line—a giant extension cord of sorts that will deliver the electricity to a point near Las Vegas. From there, the power can easily flow into Southern California’s grid. Mr. Anschutz isn’t the only wealthy investor pumping money into power-line projects in an effort to bring green energy to big cities. The Ziff family, whose fortune harks back to the glory days of magazine publishing, also is partly funding a green-power project between Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Altogether, these and other merchant-transmission projects could cost upward of $17 billion, plus at least a further $20 billion in wind, solar and hydro projects to fill these lines. There are no federal subsidies available for building transmission lines, though wind farm developers are eligible to tap a U.S. tax credit for building new production.
....
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com
Russell Gold: @russellgold
@WSJ senior energy reporter. I write books (The Boom http://ow.ly/uhtMA ) -- 2d on the way. Interested? Send me an email russell @ http://russellgold.net .
The comments to the article are worth a look. They go off into a discussion of the costs of power based on the energy source. When asked for a source for his costs, one commenter links to this:
L A Z A R D ' S L E V E L I Z E D C O S T O F E N E R G Y A N A L Y S I S — V E R S I O N 9 . 0
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I posted this at the entrance to my cubicle probably two years ago. All the nearby cubicles have become empty since then. Hmmmmm.
to the local flora and fauna. Of course, who needs a stinking planet? We are masters of the universe and we can kill the whole thing off if we want to! It's our right, by God! We're Americans!!! 
