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The 2035 Report: Reconductoring With Advanced Conductors Can Accelerate The Rapid Transmission Expansion Required For A Clean Grid

The 2035 Report: Reconductoring With Advanced Conductors Can Accelerate The Rapid Transmission Expansion Required For A Clean Grid

Full Title: The 2035 Report: Reconductoring With Advanced Conductors Can Accelerate The Rapid Transmission Expansion Required For A Clean Grid
Author(s): Emilia Chojkiewicz, Umed Paliwal, Nikit Abhyankar, Casey Baker, Ric O’Connell, Duncan Callaway, and Amol Phadke
Publisher(s): Grid Lab
Publication Date: April 8, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

Plummeting costs of clean energy and growing power demand from electrification, manufacturing, and data processing have made grid capacity one of the primary constraints in the energy transition. In the United States (U.S.), achieving the federal goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 will require the massive buildout of not only clean energy but also transmission capacity — both within each of today’s transmission planning regions and between regions as detailed in the recent Department of Energy National Transmission Needs Study. Far outpaced by the amount of new RE coming available, transmission capacity across the U.S. has grown only 1%/year over the past decade. Over 2 TW of available generation and storage resources today remain untapped, awaiting grid access in interconnection queues. Meanwhile, fast-growing electricity demand and the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather outages are placing the grid under unprecedented strain. To relieve stress on the grid and avoid jeopardizing decarbonization goals, near-term action to increase transmission capacity is crucial.

This report combines the latest energy cost data with state-of-the-art grid modeling to quantify three key elements: the cost of reconductoring with advanced conductors; the associated gains in transmission capacity; and the associated contribution to meeting transmission needs by 2035.

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