Transmission-Related Policy Options to Facilitate Offshore Wind in the Great Lakes

Abstract

Offshore wind power has the potential to play a substantial role in the renewable energy portfolio of the Great Lakes Basin in the coming decades. The Great Lakes are home to a high-quality wind resource that could displace large amounts of non-renewable power generation, having positive environmental and economic impacts in the region. To capitalize on this renewable energy solution with minimal infringement on Great Lakes communities and ecosystems, policymakers in the region must understand the transmission component of offshore wind development. Where it is binding, the transmission constraint can be a major determinant in renewable energy siting decisions, preventing developers from optimizing wind facility location based on economic, social, and environmental parameters alone. Transmission infrastructure, however, has local social and environmental implications of its own. Consequently, strategic transmission planning presents an important opportunity to minimize economic costs and social and environmental impacts of offshore wind integration. In late 2009 the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative, a multi-sector coalition of wind energy stakeholders from the bi-national Great Lakes region, identified a knowledge gap related to transmission needs for offshore wind. This report is intended to be a timely response to this knowledge gap. It aims to answers the research question, ―What transmission-related options are available to policymakers and industry to facilitate offshore wind development in the Great Lakes while maximizing net economic, social, and environmental benefits?‖ To answer that question, this report provides a discussion and preliminary analysis of anticipated transmission constraints that offshore wind development in the Great Lakes will likely encounter; a comprehensive breakdown of barriers to developing new transmission including cost, planning, permitting, and environmental barriers; and an array of transmission-related policy options designed to facilitate offshore wind integration while maximizing net benefits for the Great Lakes region. Taken as a whole, this report is intended to provide the information that regional policymakers, developers, and other stakeholders need to think strategically about the transmission component of Great Lakes offshore wind development in the mid- to long-term.