There is no love lost between the notorious Koch brothers and the nation’s railroad industry, and the relationship is about to get a lot unlovelier. A massive new, first-of-its-kind renewable energy transmission line is taking shape in the Midwest, which will cut into the Koch family’s fossil energy business. It has a good chance of succeeding where others have stalled, because it will bury the cables under existing rights-of-way using railroad rights-of-way and avoid stirring up the kind of opposition faced by conventional above-ground lines.
Koch Vs. The Railroads
The Koch brothers and their family-owned company, Koch Industries, have earned a reputation for attempting to throttle the nation’s renewable energy sector. That makes sense, considering that the diversified, multinational firm owns thousands of miles of oil, gas, and chemical pipelines criss-crossing the US (and sometimes breaking down) in addition to other major operations that depend on rail and highway infrastructure.
Koch Industries owns fleets of rail cars, but one thing it doesn’t have is its own railroad right-of-way. That’s a bit ironic, considering that railroads provided the initial kickstart for the family business back in the 1920s, but that is where trouble has been brewing today.
In 2017, our friends over at Courthouse News reported the latest round of legal action in a $50 million case brought by several Koch Industries companies against Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway Company.
Illegal monopolization and price gouging were among the accusations, but the judge in the case wasn’t taking Koch’s word for it. He agreed with the railroads’ contention that Koch should produce evidence, and he agreed that Koch should bear the expense of a records search.
Railroads Bite Back, With Renewable Energy
The railroad case attracted considerable attention from legal and transportation industry observers over the years, and it is still spinning out in court to this day. Meanwhile, the Koch family has been busy with other projects. That includes being credited with the blockage of a proposed urban light rail project in Arizona and a high-speed rail plan in Florida, among other activities targeting mass transit and railways.
Into this rather fraught relationship steps the idea of burying high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines under existing railroad rights-of-way, in order to get renewable energy from the wind-rich Midwest to population centers in the eastern US.
Renewable energy advocates have been promoting a network of new long distance, above-ground transmission lines for renewable energy since at least 2011, only to see them slow-walked to death by opponents allied with local property owners, who don’t want new transmission lines on or near their property.
If the idea of burying the new lines under existing rights-of-way pans out, it would neutralize the property owners’ line of attack.
Panning out is the big question. High voltage direct current lines are not new, but they are typically used for so-named “dispatchable” sources including biomass, hydroelectric and geothermal as well as conventional power plants. Throwing intermittent sources into the mix, namely wind and solar, raises new management and operational issues that need to be resolved whether the line is buried or not.
Nevertheless, the US firm Direct Connect is ready to give it a try. It launched the SOO Green HVDC Link Project in 2019, and last August the company launched an open solicitation process to fill capacity for a $2.5 billion, 2,100 megawatt HVDC line running 350 miles from Mason City, Iowa to Plano, Illinois, which in effect means Chicago.
The line is technically source-neutral, but the company has already emphasized that it is specifically designed to connect renewable energy generators in the Midwest’s MISO grid region with buyers in the all-important PJM region.
What Is This SOO Green Of Which You Speak?
The greenbacks behind SOO Green are Jingoli Power, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Siemens Energy, aided and abetted by Canadian Pacific Railway as a strategic partner. Canadian Pacific already has a connection from Mason City to Plano, which makes matters easier.
In the latest development, earlier this month SOO Green announced that the global energy and telecom firm Prysmian Group will supply the HVDC cable systems for the project,
They are not messing around. In announcing the Prysmian connection, Direct Connect CEO Trey Ward threw a dart squarely at Koch Industries and other fossil energy stakeholders.
“As can be seen recently in Texas and California, the US must invest in its transmission infrastructure and SOO Green’s underground rail co-location model is a game-changer that can be replicated nationwide to build a clean energy grid,” he said, while also noting the green jobs connection.
SOO Green notes that Prysmian expects to produce the HVDC cable at its factory in Abbeville, South Carolina beginning in 2023, and the line will be up and running in 2024.
Railroads Scramble In Renewable Energy Race
Renewable energy is a two-edged sword for railroad companies, which depend partly on revenue from coal and liquid fossil energy to stay afloat. That’s why it’s a little surprising to see Canadian Pacific get behind the project.
However, Canadian Pacific could be banking that opposition to new fossil energy pipelines will push more oil and gas products onto the rails, helping to sustain their business into the foreseeable future even when overall demand for fossil energy plummets.
With that in mind, it is interesting to note that more than one railway stakeholder is beginning to edge away from diesel locomotive fuel.
Norfolk Southern tried to make the switcheroo a while back with a prototype electric switcher locomotive that lost its way somewhere in the R&D maze before going into service. Last year word slipped out, though, that the original “999” prototype has been restored and put into service in California by the firm Rail Propulsion Systems. Deploying recycled batteries from Tesla and Nissan EVs, the company is already working on a second electric locomotive.
Meanwhile, Sierra Northern is experimenting with a zero emission switcher locomotive that relies on hydrogen fuel cells and battery-type energy storage, too.
The railway firm Wabtec also turned heads earlier this month, when it hooked up with GM to provide fuel cells and batteries for new zero emission locomotives.
Flow batteries could also be in play. A company called Electro Motive Diesel filed a patent for a “flow battery control system for a locomotive” in 2012, which was assigned to the Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Locomotive in 2018.
No word yet on what Progress plans to do with flow batteries, but the company is moving forward with its plans for electric locomotives. Last December Progress announced a hookup with the Pacific Harbor Line railway company to demonstrate its new “EMD® Joule” lithium-ion battery electric locomotive at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Progress does business all over the world so its no surprise to see Canadian Pacific on the list. Its most recent order was for an upgrade to a fleet of 30 heavy-haul locomotives.
If things keep running along this track, Koch Industries and other fossil energy stakeholders could be looking at a triple whammy: freight trains delivering parts for solar panels and wind turbines, driven by locomotives powered by electricity from renewable energy while underground transmission lines carry more of the same to eager consumers.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Image (screenshot): Proposed underground HVDC line for renewable energy courtesy of SOO Green HVDC Link Co., Inc.
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