Proposed transmission line for renewable power from Canada to New England canceled - Press Herald
Proposed transmission line for renewable power from Canada to New England canceled
A major electrical transmission line proposal intended to carry power to New England from Canada through Vermont and New Hampshire has been canceled.
Electric utility National Grid, one of the developers of the proposal, said in an emailed statement on Thursday that it “has determined that the project is not viable at this time.”
The proposed 211-mile, $2 billion Twin State Clean Energy Link was one of three projects around the country selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to receive part of $1.3 billion in investment, the Biden administration announced this past fall. The proposed underground transmission line through northern Vermont to Londonderry, New Hampshire, would have been able to deliver power generated by wind and solar facilities in Canada and send to Quebec renewable energy produced by future power generators off the New England coast or other source.
National Grid did not say why the project is not viable.
“National Grid thanks the dozens of route communities and regional partners who engaged with us and supported this project,” it said. “We will continue to pursue paths to building much-needed transmission capacity for the region and for our customers and communities.”
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.