Why lasers could help make the electric grid greener

FOLSOM, Calif. – In a suburb of Sacramento, on the edge of a row of beige houses, a giant transmission tower shoots up into the blue summer sky.

Jon Marmillo is looking up at a box sitting about 20 feet up the tower, full of laser sensors. He says he spends too much time staring up at transmission lines – including when he's driving. That's because he thinks that if more power lines could integrate technologies like the box of lasers, that could help the country reach its climate goals cheaper and faster.

"I'm like, we have the answer!" Marmillo says, "We could be putting more renewables on the grid."

The climate crisis demands replacing fossil fuels with green energy quickly, but thousands of wind and solar projects are looking at to get connected to transmission lines. To reach the country's goals to sharply cut planet-warming pollution, the U.S. needs to. But building those new transmission lines will take time, and billions of dollars.