Meeting Clean Energy Goals Will Require the Grid of the Future

Authors

Ken Berlin
Rob Gramlich
Alexandra B. Klass, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow
Josiah Neeley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

The transmission grid is the critical superhighway that connects energy supply and demand. But our grid was designed for the power plants of the past—not for the diverse range of resources and technologies of our clean energy future. Over 70 percent of the nation’s transmission infrastructure is more than 25 years old, and in many areas of the country constraints have already been an impediment to renewable power. To meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, we will need to expand electric transmission systems by 60 percent by 2030 and possibly triple the capacity of these systems by 2050. The Infl ation Reduction Act has large loan guarantees to spur grid investment, but hundreds of billions more will be eventually needed.

Comments

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum ®, November/December 2023. Copyright © 2023, Environmental Law Institute ®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Recommended Citation

Berlin, Ken, Rob Gramlich, Alexandra B. Klass, and Josiah Neeley. "Meeting Clean Energy Goals Will Require the Grid of the Future." The Environmental Forum (2023).