Path Power

Company Description

The U.S. urgently needs to expand and modernize its electric grid, but overhead transmission projects face years of delay due to public opposition, permitting hurdles, and land acquisition challenges. Undergrounding lines can overcome these issues—but today it’s prohibitively expensive.

Path Power’s system integrates a drilling mechanism directly into the cable, allowing it to install itself underground without the need for trenching, conduit, or heavy equipment. A series of modular propulsion tugs and a novel cable geometry enable the system to bore long distances while maintaining low tension, eliminating the need for costly splice vaults and simplifying the installation process.

This approach has the potential to cut undergrounding costs by more than half and open up entirely new routing options, accelerating the deployment of clean energy infrastructure and reducing the public friction associated with new transmission lines.