CapX 2020 is ramping up in Wisconsin, and they’re jumping on the “it’s for wind” bandwagon.  What’s so hard to understand about “OFFSHORE WIND” and cutting fossil generation?  There’s plenty of coal along the lake to shut down!

Here’s the wind resource at 100 meters:

And as to coal plants just waiting to be shut down, from CoalSwarm:

It’s all about wind?  NOT!  It’s more transmission lies…

ATC studies more high-voltage lines to import wind power

By Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel

July 7, 2009

American Transmission Co. will start public outreach in the coming months to discuss the possibility of building a high-voltage power line from La Crosse to Madison, in conjunction with Xcel Energy.

“This has really been identified as a circuit that would be desirable to move wind generation from west to east,” said John Procario, president and chief executive of American Transmission Co.

Xcel Energy, ATC and Dairyland Power Cooperative have been studying a possible Madison-La Crosse line for more than a year.

But in a new wrinkle, ATC said it will study the possibility of an even higher-voltage power line, at 765,000 volts. That would be capable of carrying more power than any other power line in Wisconsin.

Xcel is planning to build a line in Minnesota that would tie in to the La Crosse area, as part of Xcel’s CapX2020 series of transmission projects.

ATC is also exploring other projects to beef up the state’s ability to transport wind power, including a possible line from Dubuque, Iowa to Madison. Also under consideration: another 345,000-volt line in eastern Wisconsin along Lake Michigan, Pewaukee-based ATC said.

ATC and Xcel would collaborate on a La Crosse-to-Madison project, said Procario.

“We’d work together on it, but we’re hoping that we have a sizable portion of the project,” he said.

Detailed cost estimates aren’t yet available, but a 150-mile 345,000-line is likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, he said. If studies and public outreach meetings proceed well, the company could file formal plans with state regulators seeking approval of the project in late 2011.

Consideration of a 765,000-volt line comes at a time when ITC Holdings of Michigan has unveiled plans for an upper Midwest network of power lines of that scale. That project, estimated to cost $10 billion across the region, has been named the “green power express.”