Full Title: The Benefit and Urgency of Planned Offshore Transmission: Reducing the Costs of and Barriers to Achieving U.S. Clean Energy Goals
Author(s): Johannes Pfeifenberger, Joe DeLosa III, Linquan Bai, Cornelis Plet, Carson Peacock, and Ryan Nelson
Publisher(s): American Clean Power
Publication Date: January 24, 2023
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Description (excerpt):
This report first lays out the urgent case for proactively and holistically planning transmission solutions for the nation’s increasingly ambitious offshore wind goals. Section II reviews existing studies that document the benefits of proactive planning and quantifies the economic, environmental, and reliability benefits offered by carefully planned offshore wind transmission solutions. Section III summarizes barriers that currently prevent the realization of these benefits. Section IV recommends specific steps that states, grid operators, the federal administration and key federal agencies, and industry stakeholders need to take to create a pathway for no-regrets grid solutions that allows achieving near- and long-term offshore wind goals in a more cost-effective and timely manner. Section V summarizes available federal support for these initiatives—including through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, which includes the new Transmission Facilitation Program), and U.S Department of Energy (DOE) appropriations—although more dedicated federal funding would likely be necessary to make interregional offshore wind transmission a reality. The remainder of this executive summary briefly discusses each of these points.