1) Publication - 04/06/2016
Technology, Curtailment, and Transmission: Innovations
and Challenges Facing Today’s U.S. Wind Energy
Columbia Journal of Environmental Law
Kim Diamond was recently published in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. Kim’s article highlights technology,
curtailment, and transmission issues impacting today’s U.S. wind industry.
This article, a field report entitled “Technology, Curtailment, and Transmission: Innovations and Challenges Facing Today’s
U.S. Wind Energy,” discusses why, due to technological advances in turbine towers and blade designs, the wind industry is
viewing states in the Southeast as the next new frontier for wind farm development.
It also describes potential issues these advances raise in terms of supply chain economics and risks during project
construction that can render a project unfeasible. Additionally, it explains how nationwide issues such as wind farm energy
curtailment and lack of sufficient transmission are two key obstacles for long-term domestic wind energy development.
The article concludes that to build a bridge from our current energy landscape to tomorrow’s energy future, innovative and
creative solutions are needed, legal ingenuity needs to keep pace with technological advances, and issues such as
curtailment and insufficient electric transmission lines need to be raised to a more prominent place in the public
consciousness.
Kim wrote this article as a piece accompanying her presentation held at Columbia Law School in February 2016, during the
Symposium “The Growing Importance of Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation: Legal, Political, and
Technological Perspectives”.
To read the full article, click here.