The U.S. government has announced $1.5 billion in funding for four major electricity transmission projects aimed at bolstering grid resilience and expanding clean energy access across the southwest, southeast, and New England.
Funded under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, the projects will support nearly 1,000 miles (1,609 km) of new transmission lines in Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
David Turk, the U.S. deputy energy secretary, explained, “We're using it to help large transmission projects get off the ground, projects that otherwise would not get built.” The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that these investments will create approximately 9,000 jobs.
The funded projects include:
- Aroostook Renewable Project: Connecting New England to wind power from Maine;
- Cimarron Link: A 400-mile (644 km) high-voltage direct current line from Texas delivering wind and solar energy to eastern Oklahoma;
- Southern Spirit: A 320-mile (515 km) line connecting the Texas grid to southeastern power markets, aimed at preventing outages during extreme weather events like 2022's deadly storm Uri;
- Southline: A transmission line carrying wind power from western New Mexico across the desert Southwest.
According to the DOE's National Transmission Planning Study, the U.S. will need to double or triple its transmission capacity by 2050 to meet demand growth and ensure reliability, with the potential to save hundreds of billions of dollars through expanded transmission and interregional planning.
