Undersea cable could bring 'green' power to Hub (Maine to Boston)

[jpak]

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/02/14/undersea_cable_could_bring_green_power_to_hub/

As two companies press ahead on projects bringing natural gas to Boston through offshore terminals, a third group is also looking to the sea for a new source of energy -- a 140-mile underwater electric cable from Maine to South Boston.

The project, which could bring enough electricity into the Hub to meet the needs of about 500,000 homes, has only started to run the gantlet of state and federal approvals and isn't expected to be in service before 2013.

Backers of the project call it "The Green Line" because, they contend, the cable would unsnarl current transmission-line bottlenecks and enable delivery into Greater Boston of huge quantities of so-called green power generated by Maine wind turbines, hydroelectric generators driven by ocean tides, and power plants that run on wood waste from paper and lumber mills.

Whether that new power flow merely meets growth in demand or whether it supplants electricity generated by fossil fuels at Eastern Massachusetts power plants isn't yet known.

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