Building begins on facility linking Canada hydropower to NYC - Reuters.com
Building begins on facility linking Canada hydropower to NYC | Reuters
Building begins on facility linking Canada hydropower to NYC
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a campaign rally with other New York Democrats, in Yonkers, New York, U.S., November 6, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
- Companies
Sept 19 (Reuters) - New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced the start of construction on the converter station of the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line, a project to bring electricity generated from Canadian hydropower to New York City.
The 340 mile (547 km) transmission line is a proposed underwater and underground high-voltage direct current power transmission line to deliver the power from Quebec, Canada, to Queens, New York City. The project is being developed by Montreal-based public utility Hydro-Quebec (QBEC.UL) and its U.S. partner Transmission Developers.
The converter station for the line will be the first-ever transformation of a fossil fuel site into a grid-scale zero-emission facility in New York City, its backers say.
Workers have already removed six tanks that previously stored 12 million gallons (45.4 million liters) of heavy oil for burning in power plants and nearly four miles (6.44 km) of piping from the site in the Astoria, Queens neighborhood.
The facility is expected to begin operating in 2026. Once the construction is completed, it will convert 1,250 megawatts of energy from direct current to alternating current power that will be fed directly into the state's power grid.
“Renewable energy plays a critical role in the transformation of our power grid while creating a cleaner environment for our future generations,” Hochul said. The converter station is a step towards New York’s target for 70% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030.
Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru and Timothy Gardner; editing by Timothy Gardner
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Read Next
Canada oil sands carbon capture project cannot proceed until prices locked in -exec
A C$16.5 billion ($12.27 billion) carbon capture and storage (CCS) project proposed by Canada's major oil producers will only move forward if the federal government sets up a contract to lock in future carbon prices, the Pathways Alliance said on Wednesday.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: hydropower
Hydropower — electricity generated by turbines capturing energy from moving water — was for many years the primary contributor of renewable energy to the U.S. electricity grid. Its growth was rapid into the 1970s, and since then has offered a stable supply of power, while a declining share of all generation. For many years, hydropower was seen as clean energy and an unalloyed good, but a greater understanding of the impact of dams on ecosystems and wildlife has led to the removal of some dams. As of 2019, hydropower trails wind as a renewable source of power generation.