The Grid That Says Yes
Washington has some of the cleanest power in America and a queue of projects waiting years to plug in. Inside the interconnection reform that could change that.
Vince Graham
Founding Editor
May 28, 2026
13 min read
Founding preview. This is an illustrative demonstration essay published while Ever47 is being built — it is not reported journalism, and any scenes or figures are for illustration. Reported, sourced pieces will replace these at launch.
In brief
Washington runs on some of the cleanest power in America yet has a multi-year backlog of projects waiting to connect. The fix is procedural — cluster studies, meaningful deposits, and a utility culture that treats interconnection as a service delivered on a deadline rather than a risk studied indefinitely.
Key takeaways
- Interconnection queues average ~4 years — the bottleneck is process, not physics.
- Cluster studies evaluate projects in batches instead of slow first-come-first-served.
- Deposits force speculative projects to drop out early and unclog the queue.
- You cannot electrify an economy one four-year study at a time.
A state that runs on hydropower should be the easiest place in America to build clean industry. Instead, Washington’s interconnection queue has become a parking lot — gigawatts of solar, wind, and storage waiting an average of four years for a study that decides whether they can connect at all.
The queue is the bottleneck
The fix is procedural, not physical. Cluster studies that evaluate projects in batches rather than first-come-first-served. Deposits that force speculative projects to drop out early. And a utility culture that treats interconnection as a service to be delivered on a deadline rather than a risk to be studied indefinitely.
You cannot electrify an economy one four-year study at a time. The calendar is the climate policy.
Key terms
- Cluster study
- An interconnection review that analyzes a batch of proposed projects together, rather than sequentially, to cut total study time.
- Interconnection
- The technical and contractual process of connecting a new generation or storage project to the electric grid.
Frequently asked
- Why does a clean-energy state have an interconnection problem?
- Cheap clean power makes Washington attractive to build in, which floods the queue. The constraint is the speed of utility studies and transmission upgrades, not a shortage of clean generation.
- What is the single most effective reform?
- Moving from serial, first-come-first-served studies to batched cluster studies with real deposits, so the queue reflects serious projects and clears on a schedule.
Sources & further reading
The week in Washington, made legible.
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