Google has started to invest in a 350-mile-long power line that will link Virginia and new Jersey. Taking into account that we’re talking about energy, the $5 billion cost is insignificant, over a period of 10 years.
6.6 gigawatts of energy are going to pass through the cable that will collect green electricity from offshore wind farms 10 miles away from the Atlantic coast. That’s also the reason why the cable had been called “the backbone” – it will carry the energy to the mainland.
The cable will be as thick as telephone poles and would carry up to 1 gigawatt each, sunk at up to 100 feet below the surface. The machine that will do the digging is called a “jet plow,” and will carve a trench in the seabed.
So far, the wind farms that the backbone is going to connect had been transferring their energy through individual cables, but out of a sudden everyone is looking worried about the synchronization with the nearby wind projects, which actually depend on the backbone to work.
“God forbid there is a project out there ready to plug in, but the backbone perhaps got held up so that it wasn’t in sync and wasn’t ready to accept that energy,” Department of Environmental Protection Assistant Commissioner Michele Siekerka said. “Now you have a multi-million-dollar project out there not generating energy.”
Google has always invested in wise businesses when it came to the renewable energy sector. Now, with the company’s founder reaching the CEO chair, we’re hoping they’ll keep up the good intuition about the project they’ll be supporting in the future.
