Britain Pushed Ahead With Green Power. Its Grid Can’t Handle It.

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In an age of energy-hungry data centers, countries around the world have raced to install solar panels and wind turbines. One unexpected bottleneck: aging electricity grids that can’t handle the power.

In the U.S., decades-old transmission lines have been blamed for hindering the rollout of new energy projects. In Europe, a sweeping blackout in Spain in April highlighted how big power swings can overwhelm the system. Meanwhile, China’s rollout of ultrahigh-voltage transmission lines is now seen as giving it an edge in the artificial-intelligence race.

Global investment in electricity generation has surged almost 70% over the past decade to $1 trillion a year, but annual grid spending has only risen to $400 billion, according to the International Energy Agency.

The U.K. offers a cautionary tale. Britain built a vast network of wind and solar farms and generates a higher proportion of its power from renewables than most places in the world. But it didn’t build the transmission lines needed to move all that clean energy around.

Source: NYISO