Some things we’ve been noticing lately: 

Move It 

If you ask people in the wind energy business to name the biggest challenge to further growth in the United States, they’d probably say, “It’s the transmission lines.”  Fortunately, there’s been some notable progress lately.

Utility regulators in Texas approved a $4.9 billion strategy for new transmission lines to shuttle the juice from west Texas wind farms to big urban centers like Dallas and Houston. The new lines, with a planned capacity of 18,500 megawatts, are slated for completion in 2013.

And Denver-based Anschutz Corp. will soon seek approval for a $3 billion transmission system to deliver Wyoming wind energy 900 miles to the desert Southwest. How much more would it cost to enable that system to deliver solar-generated electricity to Wyoming when it’s needed?

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