Hydro-Quebec would have loved to have such boring technology as it took them more than 5y to obtain all regulatory approvals, remove all hurdles (referendum in 2 US states, etc ...) and win all judiciary appeals to allow exportation of its electricity to the Maine state on the Eastern coast.
Nov. 4, 2020 -
Key U.S. agency approves clean energy power line in Maine | Hydro-Qubec (hydroquebec.com) The United States Army Corps of Engineers has issued the federal environmental permit for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line project, designed to deliver 1,200 megawatts of renewable hydropower to the New England energy grid via Lewiston, Maine.
The NECEC has met all of the licensing requirements thus far. The Army Corps of Engineers permit follows approvals from the following agencies:
- Maine Public Utilities Commission (May 2019);
- Maine Land Use and Planning Commission (January 2020);
- Maine Department of Environmental Protection (May 2020);
- Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (June 2019).
All of these authorities have given the project their seal of approval after extensive independent review and analysis from a range of subject-matter and technical experts.
The Army Corps permit is a significant milestone, since it clears the way for the launch of construction work in Maine by Hydro-Qubec’s partner, Central Maine Power (CMP). CMP must also receive authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy as well as municipal-level permitting in Maine before it can construct all of the new interconnection’s components in the U.S. So transportation projects of power lines from renewables sources (wind and solar) will become a growing demand, as per this patent from PYR's partner:
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present application describes a rapid burrowing robot (RBR) that can dig tunnels using ultra high temperature rotating plasma torches. In one embodiment, the RBR can be used for placement of new high voltage transmission cables 10 to 55 times faster at 20% of the cost of conventional tunneling.
In one embodiment, the RBR is able to bore tunnels at speeds of 10 to 55 times faster, or greater, than conventional tunneling techniques using low cost 100% renewable energy while helping to mitigate curtailment of wind and solar energy during “over-production” periods—all while eliminating the need to solve the development timelines delays of up to 10 years for above-ground transmission projects. This leads to significant cost savings.
One of their main usage that oftenly goes silent: Wind & solar power plants now provide electricity that's cheaper than new or existing fossil fuels power plants. However, much of this potential clean, affordable resource remains unavailable to most people due to the lack of suitable transmission lines. Building the infrastructure to transmit and store this power is slow.
Existing tunnel boring machines are slow and expensive. Bertha is one of the world's largest tunnel boring machines. The speed of Bertha is about 10 m per day. It is also huge, at 17.5 m wide and nearly 100 m long, requiring assembly at each job site and then disassembly to move it to the next location, as well as needing large slurry pipes and a 2.7 km long conveyor belt to move soil out of the way by injecting water and chemicals in the broken soil until it runs into a soft paste slurry. Furthermore, such tunnel boring machines are expensive to operate. Bertha uses 18.6 MW of power and 25 people to keep it operating. The design for Bertha originated in 1825 by inventor Marc Isambard Brunel. Bertha stalled in December 2013 and required substantial repairs, delaying a tunnel project in Seattle, Wash. by about 3 years.
The RBR uses innovative plasma and robotic technologies to tunnel quickly underground through rock and soil. The RBR primarily does this without mechanical drilling, or with reduced mechanical drilling. Using the RBR, it is possible to build subterranean tunnels which can then be lined with super high voltage transmission lines. In one embodiment, those tunnels could form a self-healing neural network of smart grid transmission lines that would be nearly impervious to vandalism, terrorist attacks or natural disasters, hardening and backing up our existing electrical and power system. In one embodiment, the tunnels could also double as batteries to store vast quantities of clean renewable energy, smoothing out availability. All this could be done without the need to spend decades to get the permits needed for dozens of new overhead transmission lines, at tunneling speeds many times faster than conventional boring drill rigs and at a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, by moving such lines underground, the potential damage and risk from adverse weather events and third-party attack is reduced.