{"id":4543,"date":"2026-11-11T17:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xenetwork.org\/ets\/?post_type=xen_episodes&p=4543"},"modified":"2026-11-11T17:59:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T00:59:36","slug":"episode-287-clearing-the-connection-queue","status":"publish","type":"xen_episodes","link":"https:\/\/xenetwork.org\/ets\/episodes\/episode-287-clearing-the-connection-queue\/","title":{"rendered":"[Episode #287] \u2013 Clearing the Connection Queue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around the world, renewable energy and storage projects are waiting years in queues before they can come onto the grid. Even as the energy transition accelerated, many of these queues continued to run on the conventional first-come, first-served basis. So speculative proposals could get ahead of projects that were practical to build, providing a headwind on how fast the transition could move.<\/p>\n

Britain is one example, where in December 2025, its National Energy System Operator (NESO) told a committee of Parliament that 70% of the projects in its queue would never be built. Nine months later, Britain's Minister for Energy told another committee that the connection dates many projects had been holding were \"a work of fiction in most cases.\"<\/p>\n

What would it take to get real projects onto the grid faster, so that they can cut carbon emissions and make our energy supply more sustainable? A version of that question is under debate in the US as this episode is released. Congress is considering a wide-ranging bill on permitting and the power grid, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), which, among other changes, would reform interconnection queues to discourage speculative projects.<\/p>\n

In this episode of our documentary series, we look at the reforms and proposals in Britain, the US, Europe and Australia for getting projects through these queues faster and building the power lines they need, drawing on public recordings and episodes featuring conversations with our host Chris Nelder. We'll hear why, nearly a decade ago, a state utility commission could tell a company that wanted to build a multi-state power line that it couldn't even apply for a permit, because it had no customers in that state. And we'll hear about tenants in the German city of Neum\u00fcnster who have spent two years looking at the solar panels on the roofs of their buildings, still waiting for the local grid operator to connect them.<\/p>\n

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Featured in this episode<\/strong>, with titles as they were at the time of each recording:<\/p>\n

Public recordings<\/strong>: excerpts from official proceedings, in the order we hear them:<\/p>\n