Clean Technica | By: Carolyn Fortuna | January 16, 2018:
The Wind Energy Foundation has just released a new report. In it, they talk about the need for US transmission planners to modify their calculations based on the number of big companies that are increasingly signing deals to buy wind and solar power. In this CleanTechnica exclusive, we interview John Kostyack, executive director of the Wind Energy Foundation, and David Gardiner, lead author representing David Gardiner and Associates, about the report and its consequences for broader wind and solar energy access.
You say in the press release that “that big companies are increasingly signing deals to buy wind and solar power, and their large and growing demand may exceed the capacity of existing and planned transmission lines – yet transmission planners aren’t taking this into account as they draw up their future plans.” What would persuade these transmission planners to rethink their approaches?
John: “The missing element is that the world of RTO [i.e. Regional Transmission Organization] planning has been a closed lot. Most people who are engaged in transmission planning are not coming from the world of corporate purchasing. Yet a lot of these purchases are happening. Once the RTOs have these facts, we think change will occur quickly.”
David: “The whole, incredible explosion in the demand for corporate renewable energy has been a fast growing and recent phenomenon. We want to get it on the radars of the transmission planners. The corporate renewable energy demand of 60 gigawatts by 2025 is a significant increase from a group of people who had no previous demand.”
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