e360 digest

15 Jan 2013: Key Offshore Transmission Line
To Be Built For U.S. East Coast Wind Power

A group of prominent U.S. investors, including Google, is expected to announce today it is moving forward with construction on the first leg of an ambitious $5 billion undersea transmission line that will connect future offshore wind farms along the mid-Atlantic coast, a project they say will avert the regulatory hurdles required in connecting each individual wind farm to land-based electricity lines. The first segment of the project, which will occur in three phases, includes construction of a 189-mile transmission cable along much of the New Jersey coast. Coordinators of the project, known as the Atlantic Wind Connection, say that the cable would deliver more than 3,400 megawatts of electric capacity from future offshore wind projects to the shore at three separate locations in southern, central, and northern Jersey. Construction is expected to begin in 2016, according to project sponsors. The project intends to eventually link offshore wind farms with electricity grids from Virginia to New York City. Its backers argue that the buried offshore transmission cable, the “spine” of the project, would be impervious to storms and could provide emergency power during major storms, such as the recent Hurricane Sandy.

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