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As players in the Southwest invest tens of millions of dollars in brand new power lines to transmit electricity from the region’s burgeoning solar farms, utilities in the Northwest are left blowing in the wind.

According to the trade publication Engineering Record-News, 62 wind farm projects in southern Washington, totaling 3,000 megawatts, either to get service from the Bonneville Power Administration’s new transmission line.

In light of this, the BPA said it has stopped preliminary work on the $90 million project, called the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental Transmission Line. This news comes on the heels of an announcement by the BPA’s southwestern counterpart – Western Area Power Administration – to hire contractors to upgrade and build parts for a $91 transmission line to transport electricity for solar farms in the Southwest.

The wavering of the 62 wind farm projects hits the development of the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental transmission line hard; they account for roughly 24 percent of all projects requesting transmission service from the BPA since 2008. BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said in the ENR article that if the agency still thinks the power line is needed, it will reissue a request for pre-construction work and the power line could be operational by 2013 as originally intended.

by cellanr via Flickr