4.22.24 - The $6 billion project to power 1 million NY homes with clean energy is the first of its kind
' Beginning in 2026, 1,250 megawatts of electricity could speed along 339 miles of underground cable to provide a million New York City homes with hydropower generated in Canada.
The $6 billion Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line is under construction to help New York state meet its clean-energy goals.
It's also part of a larger nationwide push to create more transmission lines to bring renewable energy to the country's aging electrical grid.
When CHPE (pronounced "chippy") broke ground in 2022, it became one of New York's first Tier 4 projects, the state's program aimed at sourcing 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
"We're looking forward to the day when we are going to be turning on the switch and bringing that clean energy into New York City," Donald Jessome, the founder and former CEO of Transmission Developers, the company behind CHPE, told Business Insider.
From nuclear to natural gas to hydropower
The Indian Point nuclear plant once provided about 25% of New York City's power needs. New York shut it down in 2021 because of concerns about groundwater pollution and the plant's proximity to a city of over 8 million people.
The state has been making up for the loss with three natural-gas plants that came online between 2018 and 2020. According to EPA data, carbon emissions in the New York City area rose by about 20% between 2019 and 2022.
These carbon-emitting plants are necessary because New York City isn't well-connected to upstate's plentiful renewable sources, like hydropower and wind. With so few transmission lines, about half of New York's power is generated by 24 gas and fuel-oil plants within the city.
"Because of bottlenecks in the grid south of Albany, there's a limit to the extent to which that generation can be used to satisfy demand in the New York City area," Ryan Calder, an assistant professor in environmental health and policy at Virginia Tech, told Business Insider.
CHPE will bypass Albany, Poughkeepsie, and other cities north of New York City. The transmission line will tap into Hydro-Québec's existing generation and send a fraction of it to New York, avoiding upstate bottlenecks that can tax the grid during peak-demand times. '
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