Comment by davedx
3 years ago
I know quite a bit about most of the things discussed in the article from having worked for a renewables company and yet I learned quite some new bits I didn’t know about, for example the intra-UK submarine HVDC connectors (and their eye watering cost). Not a very long article but packed with clearly written and valuable information. Great stuff
We need to figure out how to reduce long distance power transfer.
Imagine a global power distribution network, the entire world could be 100% solar & wind. Perhaps one day...
Imagine someone invents low cost high temperature superconductors which enable fusion reactors, to much fanfare. Until everyone slowly realizes that we can use those same conductors to balance low cost electricity globally for less money.
For sure. This will be very cool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia-Asia_Power_Link
Edit: would have been. Looks like they lost funding. :(
Not going to happen for geopolitical reasons ever, unless we have a one king for the whole planet.
Why couldn't countries just keep dirty coal generators and coal delivery infrastructure mothballed such that if power delivery from the other country is cut, just spin up the coal plants for a while until it gets sorted out. The cost of all of that may be less than the cost savings of importing electricity from a far-away country.
Are there any interesting things you know not mentioned in the article which you want to add here? (I’m curious to hear more)
The details of how battery storage systems currently work is pretty interesting. Modo Energy has a lot of great blog articles about it. Start here: https://platform.modo.energy/phase/article/3393/benchmarking...