What the Pickens fiasco means to “Green”

TEXAS - Texas oilman and energy security proselyte T. Boone Pickens announced that he will delay, and likely permanently scuttle, plans for a 687 turbine wind project in the Texas panhandle.

The demise of the project, which was supposed to be the largest in the world at a rated generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts, came when Pickens discovered he couldn't raise money to build transmission lines to carry wind energy from his remote 200,000 acres to big cities that would consume the power.

Pickens had obviously hoped to become the poster child for wind. Instead, his Texas experiment is now a cautionary tale on the critical role of transmission to wind development. He's stuck with $2 billion worth of General Electric turbines, which he hopes to move to smaller projects throughout the Midwest and Canada. He's also decided to wait for the government to build transmission to carry wind power in Texas.

Transmission is a critical and often overlooked component to making green energy work, particularly because wind and solar resources are often located in rural areas far from major transmission backbones.

A year ago the Department of Energy released a roadmap by which the U.S. would generate 20% of its electricity from wind by the year 2030. The critical bottleneck in the plan would be transmission. DOE said a nationwide network of high-voltage power lines would suffice to get all that wind energy to market, but the plan would cost at least $60 billion.

In the drive to stimulate green energy, President Obama will need to keep the need for transmission front and center.