THE PROBLEM: New Hampshire’s rural North Country is attractive to wind and biomass developers because wind and wood are plentiful and conflicts with neighbors are less likely. But the transmission line south can only handle 100 megawatts of the 460 megawatts in proposed projects.
ROADBLOCKS: Existing rules require developers to pay for upgrades needed to hook into the transmission system, an estimated $200 million for these projects. That’s likely to be more than investors will pay.
SOLUTIONS: No easy or quick solution is in the works. The regional power network would spread the cost across New England if the benefit were regional. But before such cost-sharing would be considered, developers must break ground on their projects – something they say they can’t do without investor support.
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