Clean Line Energy Partners recently received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to go ahead with one of the Great Plains transmission projects according to the Center for Rural Affairs.
The Grain Belt Express transmission line will carry wind energy from Western Kansas to customers in Missouri, Illinois, and the eastern United States. This line is unique because it sells transmission capacity directly to the customers that generate power, like wind farms. This approach drives low wind energy prices even lower.
The Grain Belt Express now can form agreements with western Kansas wind farms. The farms have the potential to generate 13.5 gW of clean and renewable energy.
In an interesting twist of fate, electric transmission was built out from the cities to rural areas in the 1930s, now rural areas send renewable energy to the cities.