April 13, 2010
The New York Times reported that researchers have proposed connecting wind farms with underground transmission lines in order to keep wind power supply stable. Intermittency of wind generated power is a problem, since the turbines stop when the wind isn’t blowing.
By connecting wind farms that lie along the Eastern Seaboard, the overall output would stabilize despite vastly different weather conditions along the 1,500 miles of coastal ocean.
Several offshore wind farms are well into planning stages, though none have been built yet. Undersea transmission line could cost well over a billion dollars to build. “But the whole idea is that it would pay off over time,” says Willett Kempton of the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration at the