Here’s an idea that we at Cooler Planet feel is right on time: make the grid match the deliverables.
That’s also the idea behind Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s speech to a packed crowd at the Ronald Reagan Building on November 18th. Schmidt, who is also chairman of the board of the New America Foundation, a non-profit public policy institute and think tank located in Washington, D.C. that advocates for innovative political solutions beyond party lines, thinks the economic crisis is prime time for renewable energy mandates.
Schmidt’s essential argument is that the economy is calling for stimulus, and there’s no better way to provide that than putting the unemployed and jobless building contractors to work building a comprehensive, national electric grid.
Currently, renewables like solar and wind face a gridlock. They are built in areas that are not hooked up to the areas where the people who need the power live. The United States, as a whole, is divided into 12 grids, owned between eight ISOs (Independent System Operators) and four RTOs (Regional Transmission Operators). This mishmash of transmission capacity, with all its regional and federal (FERC) rules and regulations, means that Lake Benton Wind project power can’t be delivered to Indiana, and Nevada’s proposed solar array won’t help North Dakota.
Using federal pre-emption policies, building contractors and others could be put to work building a truly national grid. Citing ARPANET, Schmidt foresees this grid pushing clean, “green”, renewable sources of energy as nothing else could, because companies who can’t profit from their renewable generation simply won’t build it.
Referring to his own company’s plan for clean energy, Schmidt suggested grid integration as one sure way to reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil, and we at Cooler Planet salute him for promoting the future of solar energy.
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Cool blog. I like how quick to update you are on upcoming energy policy. I will certainly be coming back.
Thanks, Jesse. We try to stay at, or near, the cutting edge of both policy and technology, and please do come back often. Readers are the reason we exist!