An Effort to Spread Green Power to Coasts
Dec 8, 2009 – Matthew L. Wald reports in The New York Times, “An Effort to Spread Green Power to Coasts” that a
company, Tres Amigas, proposes a huge power hub near Clovis, N.M., covering more than 20 square miles. It would be remote from populated areas but near the fulcrum of the continent’s wind and solar resources. Tres Amigas plans to make regulatory filings on Tuesday in pursuit of its goal.
The project could, backers say, transform a region that is a sparse frontier for transmission lines into a robust intersection that would allow immense transfers of power across the country. The direction of flow would depend on where the wind was blowing, the sun was shining and the temperatures were creating extra electrical demand.
The project would link the Eastern Interconnection, which stretches from Halifax to the Dakotas and New Orleans; the Western Interconnection, which runs from British Columbia to a slice of Baja California, and extends east toward the Rockies; and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a transmission grid covering most of that state.
