"It takes way too long to connect new solar, wind and batteries to the grid. Policy fixes are needed, but they move slowly — in the meantime, new tech could help."
"When it comes to the existentially important process of connecting new clean energy to the grid, 2023 is ending much as it began: in a literal gridlock.
Despite getting a ton of attention from policymakers — and a major push from federal regulators demanding interconnection reform at the country’s utilities and grid operators — clean energy projects remain stuck behind massive interconnection backlogs that threaten to slow down the transition away from fossil fuels.
Across the country, the amount of wind, solar and battery projects seeking connection to the grid has swelled to more than 2,000 gigawatts — far outpacing the total 1,250 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity of all existing power plants on the U.S. grid today. While only about a quarter of that backlog is ever likely to get built, it underscores both the pent-up demand for what’s become the lowest-cost source of electricity and the problems that are preventing it from being brought online.
Today, clean-energy developers in much of the country can expect to wait more than three and a half years for utilities and grid operators to process their interconnection request, up from about a year in 2015, according to data from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. In some cases, waits can last even longer. “We’ve personally seen interconnection wait times reach up to eight years,” said Thomas Houghton, CEO of solar and energy storage developer Adapture Renewables."
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