The corporate world is a central mover behind the buildout of new wind and solar installations — a drive that could be threatened, however, by insufficient infrastructure: A just released report by the Wind Energy Foundation says that as much as 51,000 megawatts of renewable energy could fail to reach market if the transmission network is not expanded.
The demand for wind and solar energy is increasing because consumers want cleaner energy and because prices are falling — a demand that will be sustained, even without subsidies. But nothing will help if wind and solar electrons don’t have access to long-distance, high-voltage power lines; such resources are most often generated in rural regions before they are transported to urban areas.
