GE, Clean Line join forces for America’s largest clean energy project
Clean Line Energy Partners and General Electric (GE) have announced a collaboration in the development of the nation’s largest clean energy infrastructure project, a massive 720-mile electric transmission line that will deliver wind energy from the Oklahoma Panhandle to homes in Arkansas, Tennessee, and other states in the Southeast.
The Plains and Eastern Clean Line will be the first overhead high voltage direct current (HVDC) project in the U.S. in more than 20 years. GE will be the exclusive provider of the HVDC converter stations, the company’s first HVDC project since acquiring Alstom in 2015. The converters will be located in Pope County, Arkansas, as well as Texas County, Oklahoma and Shelby County, Tennessee.
“We are pleased to partner with Clean Line Energy on this transformational clean energy project,” said Russell Stokes, president and CEO of GE Energy Connections. “Our exclusive agreement to provide HVDC technology for the Plains & Eastern Clean Line Project will pave the way for substantial growth in the U.S. renewable energy industry.”
Michael Skelly, president of Clean Line Energy, praised GE’s experience handling large-scale infrastructure projects in the U.S. and across the world.
“This project will benefit from the experience and leadership that GE brings to bear in modernizing the U.S. electric grid,” he said. “They have been at the forefront of many of our nation’s largest infrastructure projects and will ensure that leading technology will be used to provide affordable, clean energy to the Mid-South and Southeast.”
The Plains and Eastern Clean Line was approved by federal regulators in March after sitting in limbo for five years after being rejected by the Arkansas Public Service Commission in 2011, allowing it to move forward under the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The project is billed as the largest wind energy transmission project in the country. It promises to deliver 4,000 megawatts of wind power generated by turbines in Oklahoma to a terminal in Memphis.
Critics of the line say that the project will erode property values along the line’s route and will have negative environmental impacts. The entire Arkansas congressional delegation in Washington has spoken out against the project, while a lawsuit by landowner groups is pending in federal court in Jonesboro.
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