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US Interior Secretary Says Department Will Play Large Role in Transmission

February 24, 2009 | 5 Comments

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Washington, D.C., United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar participated in a roundtable with many of the nation's top leaders at a summit examining how development of renewable energy in conjunction with a "National Clean Energy Smart Grid" is an economic, environmental and national security imperative.

"We must change the energy marketplace so we can save our country and our planet. We began with the 2007 energy bill, we continued it in the stimulus package, and now we must complete the work."

-- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Salazar joined former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens and others in a roundtable discussion at the event.

“The Department of the Interior can play some significant roles--first with respect to siting and second with respect to transmission,” Salazar said at the National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy held at the Newseum in downtown Washington. “We manage 20 percent of the land mass of the United States and 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf,” he noted.

Highlighting the importance of the public lands and offshore areas under the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction, the Secretary pointed to “a huge energy potential for wind in the Atlantic, a huge solar potential in the Southwest and a whole host of other items in the portfolio of renewable energy.”

The Secretary cautioned, however, that the success of these efforts would depend on getting the energy from the places where it is produced to the places where it is consumed. “Unless we are able to deal with the transmission issue, we will be standing in place 5 or 10 years from now. It is appropriate for…Congress and President Obama to be absolutely focused like a laser beam on transmission."

Speaker Pelosi told roundtable attendees that renewable energy is and will continue to be a focal point of the agenda for congressional democrats and that changes must be made in the energy market to help stabilize the U.S.

"We are also hopeful that this year we will be able to pass a renewable electricity standard - President Obama is proposing 25 percent by 2025. We can build a superconducting smart grid that will allow wind or solar power to travel from America's plains or deserts or even rooftops to our cars," she said. "As you may know, the recovery package requires the Department of Energy to do a study on the transmission issues facing renewable energy, which should help guide Congress...We must change the energy marketplace so we can save our country and our planet. We began with the 2007 energy bill, we continued it in the stimulus package, and now we must complete the work. It is a moral, environmental and health, economic, and national security issue."

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5 Reader Comments

Comment
1 of 5

christopher-lee-166032

February 25, 2009

It's a frosty morning, but there's a good megawatt of sunshine beating down on our back garden.

It's windy too.

In my opinion there's too much emphasis on big industrial machinery with high mechanical and thermodynamic efficiency, and not enough on solutions embeddded in the local network that work well with plethoric but 'diute' or 'thinly spread' energy sources.

Embedded systems may have lower capital costs and they do have lower transmission losses. Also, they could render the grid less vulnerable to the crashes that occur sometimes in the USA and Europe.

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2 of 5

steven-beckendorf-69642

February 25, 2009

It's true that local energy generation can reduce transmission losses and decrease widespread grid outages. But it's my impression that things like rooftop solar and backyard wind turbines won't collectively generate enough renewable electricity to replace the dirty coal and natural gas power plants. Of course we need all the renewable kW we can find, but overall we will still need large wind farms and large solar plants, probably solar thermal plants in the deserts.

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douglas-dewitz-58838

February 26, 2009

I live on the Utah boarder with the Navajo transmission (Lake Powell to Vegas) line in plain site. Too bad the words solar and renewable are like a war cry to the coal based electric cooperative which will not consider net metering nor see the local job creation possibilities of a solar facility in our area.The sooner we can establish the transmission system the better.

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joshua-finn-155215

February 28, 2009

Christopher-

Costs for even the largest "distributed" solar PV systems are much higher than those for large, centralized systems. Large-scale transmission projects that reach large and efficient plants, which also maximize line utilization with good planning and resource mixes will add significantly less cost.

Additionally, the actual potential is much less for distributed energy projects.

Josh

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john-sykes-172021

March 1, 2009

A comprehensive approach is needed, combining demand reduction, with both distributed and centralized production for the short and near term. Long term, I would love for buildings to become net producers, rather than net consumers of energy. While not here today, I believe that the new technology will enable this before long, and with smart grids, will begin a new paradigm.

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