Dive Brief:
- Anbaric and National Grid have teamed up to construct a 60-mile transmission line, part of which would traverse the bottom of Lake Champlain, in order to bring renewable power from New York to Vermont.
- Estimated to cost about $600 million, some 40 miles of the proposed Vermont Green Line would run underwater on a route developers say is safe and unobtrusive.
- The project could come online in 2019 or 2020, and would bring wind power from northern New York to New Haven, Vermont.
Dive Insight:
Spurred by calls for more renewable power, Anarbic and National Grid say construction could begin in 2017 on the Vermont Green Line project. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut are all issuing request for proposals for more clean energy, and the partnership said it is preparing to respond.
The Green Line proposal, which would access wind farms in New York, would need approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, as well as state regulators in Vermont and New York.
Anbaric spokesman Mike Relyea told WAMC that "what’s really driving this is that the New England states have put out an RFP calling for new renewable energy to be brought into the region. The project’s funded for the most part. We are right now analyzing and trying to narrow down our last right-of-way locations that we need."
Project backers say the line would lower electricity costs, as well as create jobs, economic development and long-term property tax benefits in both states.
Anbaric and National Grid are not the first to develop the idea of running a line underneath Lake Champlain, however. Two others have been planned: a 333-mile line being proposed by Transmission Developers Inc. and the New England Clean Power Link, which would bring hydropower to Canada into New England.
