The US government’s plans to expand grid infrastructure to cope with additional renewable energy moved a step further on Thursday (25 May) with announcements in the permit approval process for Nevada’s 8GW Greenlink transmission lines.
The Department of the Interior said Thursday that the Bureau of Land Management had started an environmental review of the Greenlink North project and issued a draft environmental assessment of the Greenlink West project, moving both a step closer to construction.
Both projects, dubbed Greenlink, are designed to accelerate the transition of the western United States grid to become powered exclusively from renewable energy sources including wind farms, which President Joe Biden aims to complete nationwide no later than 2035.
Greenlink West aims to run a transmission line over 720km between Las Vegas and Reno across Nevada’s border with California, while Greenlink North would span roughly 380km between Ely and Yerrington across central Nevada.
Final approval for the similar 885km SunZia Transmission project, a transmission line which will span Arizona and New Mexico and will provide up to 3GW of power from the planned 3.5GW SunZia wind farm, was given by the Bureau of Land Management earlier this month.
