As I was waiting for my flight back from the PMI Global Congress in Washington, DC, I picked up a discarded Washington Post (…..REUSE..REUSE…). There was an article by Juliet Eilperin about Google backing a “superhighway” for wind power, subtitled Underwater Energy Grid. If that wasn’t exciting enough, there was a sub-subtitle $5 billion project would supply mid-Atlantic area. Project! This is definitely one of those projects we term green by definition, but it is a very intriguing one, and one that a company like Google is willing to partner with Good Energies, and environmentally focused international investment company. Google will provide 37.5% of the equity for initial development.
The project is dubbed the Atlantic Wind Connection and is intended to provide the transmission lines for a series of offshore wind turbines capable of supplying 1.9 million homes without taxing the already overburdened electric grid. It is very ambitious project covering an area of 350 miles with on-shore transmission nodes in Norfolk, VA, Lewes, DE, the proximity of Manasquan, NJ, and Newark, NJ. The article goes on to say that the water remains relatively shallow 10-15 miles offshore, far enough so as not to be seen from shore, one of the issue plaguing the Cape Wind Project.
How exciting to be a project manager on that project. One of the risks would certainly be that since it is the North Atlantic, there is always that possibility of the “prefect storm”. The timeline for the project looks like a deliverable in 2013 of construction start, complete in 2020, but with an interim milestone of the initial stage of construction complete in 2016.
Interestingly, Ken Salazar, Interior Secretary, said last month “Rather than develop transmission infrastructure on a piecemeal basic, we should – in close coordination with the private sector, states, and tribes – lay out smart transmission systems upfront.” Gee, a strategy for a change (sorry-editorial comment).
Anyway, we’ll keep an eye on this project and this is just another reason for PMs to be “surfing the green wave“.
Our good friend and EarthPm/
You probably know that Elizabeth is a force to be reckoned with. Her previous book, 
, is a case-study based book covering what project managers really need to know to make their projects successful. She also writes a very popular, award winning blog 
“Opt Out of Print” screams the insert in the most recent PM Network Magazine. “Do your part to conserve resources.” That is a terrific idea with green intent. And, conserving resources doesn’t only mean saving trees. If everyone decided to read PM Network electronically, it would mean saving the human resources required to put together a print journal. Even if everyone didn’t “opt out of print”, only if some did, it would save trees, transportation (reduce carbon footprint), human resources, etc. Yet, the bottom-line is the bottom-line. How much would going electronic with PM Network , even some of the readers, save in $ resources for PMI®? Just like we say in 
Blythe [sic] Spirit – Solar Power Goes Big Time
The Blythe Project, being developed by Solar Millennium, a German solar developer, is slated for more than 7,000 acres of public land near the Arizona border, some 225 miles east of Los Angeles. According to Rachel Rossitto at www.tonic.com, this project alone will be generate 1,000 megawatts of power, is expected to take care of more than 300,000 homes as well as hire 1,066 workers during construction and create 295 permanent positions. The project is the sixth solar power development approved by the Interior Department this month – all in California and Nevada. Approval of a seventh project - also in California – is expected in the next few weeks. All could start transmitting electricity by the end of 2011 or early 2012. At full capacity, the seven projects would generate more than 3,000 megawatts of power and provide electricity for up to 2 million homes.
The bureau opened federally owned lands in 2005 to solar development, but an examination of records and interviews of officials by The Associated Press showed the program operated a first-come, first-served leasing system that quickly overwhelmed its small staff and enabled companies, regardless of solar industry experience, to squat on land without any real plans to develop it. To expedite environmental review and bureaucratic red tape, the Interior Department identified 14 of the most promising solar projects among the more than 180 current permit applications covering about 23 million acres of federally owned desert in the Southwest. Those 14 “fast-track” projects alone would produce more than 6,000 megawatts, enough to power 4 million homes for a day at peak usage, officials said.
Final approval by the end of the year qualifies the solar projects for federal funds under the economic stimulus law approved last year. Solar Millennium is eligible to secure $1.9 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the Energy Department for the Blythe project.
And looking beyond the traditional boundaries of a project, the company will be required to mitigate the project’s effect on more than 8,000 acres of habitat for the desert tortoise, western burrowing owl, bighorn sheep and Mojave fringe-toed lizard, as part of an agreement with federal officials.
There are a couple of pertinent Green Project Management principles that come out of this announcement. It is clearly a “Green by Intent” project and for sure part of the “Green Wave” of environmental awareness. Additionally, it has the important element of considering what happens beyond the traditional deliverable of the output of the project. While we applaud the green power initiative, we are just as excited about the green project management elements the project displays.