Clean Energy Vision: The Future of the Western Power Grid
WRA celebrates the release of "Western Grid 2050: Contrasting Futures, Contrasting Fortunes," a look at how the two options now confronting the West will play-out if the region chooses to invest in modernizing the grid in a move to a clean energy future, or if it continues to spend money on the grid in a business-as-usual manner.
The report is a product of the Clean Energy Vision project of the Western Grid Group and Western Clean Energy Advocates, of which WRA is a participating member. This report to lays out the roadmap for how the 11 states in the western US can integrate needed grid improvements to provide the nation access to the bounty of the West's renewable energy resources. The western grid already needs investment of at least $200 billion to improve performance and reliability. If this investment is directed toward a clean energy vision of the grid, citizens of the West can see the benefits of lower and more stable energy costs, more jobs, cleaner air, reduced dependence of water-intensive fossil fuels, and reduced healthcare costs through reduced exposure to the toxins and pollutants produced by fossil fuels.
The Clean Energy Vision a collaborative project supported by a wide group of advocates throughout the West known as Western Clean Energy Advocates along with the Western Grid Group, an influential policy group focued on western transmission planning.