Atlantic Wind Connection.

As recently reported by The New York Times and National Public Radio, Google is entering the alternative energy market. The Internet advertising giant announced recently that they would be partnering with Good Energies and Marubeni Corporation on a proposed five billion dollar undersea transmission line project. An important component of a clean energy grid.

The project would stretch from Virginia to New Jersey, acting as an energy super highway consisting of buried cables running roughly parallel to the Atlantic coast, about ten to fifteen miles of shore. At several points branches would extend inland connecting major cities to the main line. This distance from the shoreline is important because it puts the project primarily in federal waters where it will fall under the jurisdiction of The Department of the Interior. While federal approval is challenging it might avoid cross-border issues that could result from negotiating with several states one project. Secondly, future wind farms that would be built along this "energy backbone" would be barley visible from shore, a stumbling block encountered by previous off shore wind projects.

This effort addresses a major hurdle to wind power; getting the power from where it is produced to where it is needed. This is a challenge for most electricity sources and in fact the Atlantic Wind Connection line will probably be used to transport more conventionally produced power at first. One of the components of the plan is to use the new line to transport energy from Virginia to the New York/New Jersey area, where it is more expensive. This proposed energy export raises concerns about increased electricity rates in Virginia. In addition to increased rates this could lead to increased demand for coal production in our region creating conflicting environmental goals in that the long term goal of the AWC is to be part of a clean power grid, but in the short term it might make increases demand for coal.

The roughly three hundred and fifty mile long stretch of ocean that could be accessed by this transmission line helps to overcome the issue of variability inherent in wind energy. A study by Researchers at the university of Delaware estimated that the winds of the area in question known, as the Mid-Atlantic Bight would generate power ninety eight percent of the time. The AWC would have a capacity of six thousand mega-watts, enough power to supply one million nine hundred thousand homes.

The development and operation of the system would be headed by Trans-Elect, an independent transmission company, and would be subject to oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

No new development comes with out a price and while there are legitimate concerns about any project of this scale this one at least is worth the cost. If we intend to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels for electricity production and continue to enjoy something like our current way of life, then projects of this scale will be necessary.