America’s grid needs an upgrade. Scientists may have a solution.

The US government’s effort to expand clean energy across the country is facing a major obstacle: lack of available power lines, which can take a decade or more to build from scratch.

But there could be a faster – and cheaper – solution that’s already used widely around the globe, according to a report published this week.

The problem: The Energy Department estimates that America’s power grid needs to expand its capacity by two-thirds or more by 2035 to meet the US government’s clean energy goals. However, the US added just 251 miles of high-voltage power lines last year – or 0.1% of overall capacity – due to permitting delays, local lawsuits, and other legal roadblocks.

A new study has identified a way to solve the issue. According to researchers from GridLab and UC Berkeley, America’s energy grid has the potential to double its existing capacity by replacing its power lines with cables made from state-of-the-art materials – a technique that’s reportedly less than half as expensive as building new lines, and takes less than three years to complete.

• This upgrade process has been used in other countries for over a decade, though many US utilities have yet to embrace it due to unfamiliarity with the technology.

💥 The (potential) impact: If US utilities updated their power lines nationwide, American communities could take advantage of thousands of proposed solar and wind energy projects that currently can’t move forward because local grids are too clogged to accommodate them.