The U.S. must more than double the recent historical pace of transmission construction to take full advantage of financial incentives and other provisions of the new climate change law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to cut greenhouse gas emissions, say Princeton University-led engineering researchers in a new report. However, current grid planning, siting, permitting and cost allocation realities could impede that outcome.
In its analysis, Princeton University's Zero-Carbon Energy Systems Research and Optimization Laboratory (ZERO Lab) says constrained growth of current U.S. transmission severely limits the expansion of renewable energy sources that the law, enacted in August, aims to propel. “Failing to accelerate transmission expansion beyond the recent historical pace of about 1% per year increases 2030 U.S. greenhouse emissions by about 800 million tons per year,” says lab leader, university engineering profesor Jesse Jenkins, adding that more than 80% of the potential IRA-promised emissions cuts by that year would be lost.