"Even as technologies like wind, solar and electric cars spread, nations are falling far behind in building the power lines needed to support them."
"Even as clean energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles spread rapidly across the globe, most countries are falling perilously behind in building the power lines and electric grids needed to support them, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday in an extensive analysis.
The report estimated that nations around the world will need to build or upgrade roughly 50 million miles of power lines by 2040 if they want to meet the goals they have set for adding vast amounts of renewable power, switching from gasoline-powered cars to plug-in vehicles and replacing gas furnaces with electric heat pumps.
That’s a staggering task, equivalent to nearly doubling the size of the world’s existing electric grids in just two decades. Countries would need to double their investment in transmission lines and other infrastructure, to $600 billion per year by 2030, the report said. Yet with the notable exception of China, investments in grids have been declining in many countries.
“Electric grids are really a blind spot for clean electricity everywhere,” Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency, said in an interview earlier this year. “Policymakers are all thinking about building new renewable power plants but they haven’t paid the same attention to building grids. It’s like being focused on building the fastest, most beautiful car you possibly can, but then you forget to build the roads for it.”"
Brad Plumer reports for the New York Times October 17, 2023.
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