The White House recently announced that $200 billion in tax cuts will be allocated through federal funds to incentive private companies to re-build US infrastructure. The expectation is that the resulting improvements will be ultimately valued at $1-trillion. While this is hardly a plan that states and cities can currently run with, a 50-slide document released in January offers at least a small amount of insight as to where these funds may go.
Fifty infrastructure projects that have potential to restore value to the economy are listed in the document. For each project, the document outlines estimated costs, potential number of jobs created, sources of funding (federal, public, and private), and a summary of a projects’ long-term value. Most projects in the document are related to the construction and maintenance of waterways and dams, mass public transit, highways, and pipelines. 50% are privately funded.
Out of the 50, seven projects focus on electricity, and five focus on “clean power”. Two projects led by private company, Anscuntz are covered in the report, with the TransWest Express Transmission line spanning 725 miles to transport electricity from 1000 wind turbines at the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farm in Wyoming. The transmission leads to distributed load centers in Las Vegas, southern California, and Arizona. Another transmission line project for transmitting renewable energy in mid and eastern southern states is listed in the report, along with two more projects aimed at restoring hydropower plants, one of which would supply power to the NYC metro (slide 21).
But only one project in the document addresses grid modernization and implementation of storage system for renewable energy. This is the grid modernization project in southern California, which was initiated to cut down on the use of fossil-fuel backup generators during grid failures, and expedited after a natural oil shortage in Aliso Canyon.
The Energy Storage Association notes that there will be a higher demand for energy storage as buildings, HVAC, and transportation add more than 3,500 TWh in grid loading over the next 8 years. Aging grids will require upgrades, and adding automatic controls can help to meet the higher electricity demands of a growing population. Storage can also help mitigate grid disruptions that are likely to become more frequent and severe. The ESA predicts that 35 GW of energy storage will be installed to supply electricity the grid by 2025.
The U.S. needs storage to reap the benefits of its existing and future renewable energy infrastructure. In 2016 alone, more than 7.8 GW of U.S. wind energy was installed, and now exceeds 72 GW installed capacity. 15 GW solar energy infrastructure was installed in the U.S. in 2016. By 2022, corporate-procured renewables are expected to reach 60 GW, and businesses and states will continue to invest in renewable energy infrastructure.
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