21–30 of 152 posts
Either way, this doesn't have to be hyper efficient. It just has to be better than "get lots of batteries". Like others, I'm more worried about redundancy / operational concerns than about power loss.
Even then, the fundamental benefit of solar energy is it's distributed nature. With something like nuclear power, however, there might be more use...
You want to connect the Pacific rim for that grid to work but I can easily imagine some intermediate "links" that seem to make more sense
Doesnt China have it's own supply of deserts a bit closer to home?
Part of the idea is that the producer and consumer of the energy are on opposite hemispheres and at different longitudes. That means when its winter in China, it is going to be summer in Chile. There is also a considerable time difference between the places which helps to supply electric energy via solar power even while it is night in China.
If it's uneconomical to ship from Arizona to Boston, then Chile to Asia seems even more problematic.
Although in this case the submarine HVDC line is competing against batteries since Chile and China are in different hemispheres. I hope with they have an accurate prediction for battery prices in their business plan, because the prices of batteries are dropping precipitously.
1: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2020/12/27/the-future-of-...
Hopelessly naive, I know, but shouldn't there be a global grid to optimally distribute electricity from solar irradiation rather than laying idiotic lengths of cable for political reasons? You want to connect the Pacific rim for that grid to work but I can easily imagine some intermediate "links" that seem to make more sense
What percentage of power is lost to line-loss at those distances? And if you are going to cover long distances you usually push up to 750kV or more: how long before there's an insulation breakdown somewhere along your 15,000km and you get some very energetic arcing and sparking underwater? Not to mention that it makes for an interesting asset to target (though only a few nations have the "tools" to attack power cable…
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current#ci...
With the deprecation of fossil fuel, majority of the nations on earth wont have the dirty, but easy option, any more. The clean energy tech is still way out of reach for most of these countries.
Building electricity transmission appears an easier option. It's easier in the sense that almost everyone knows how to build and mange them, to some degree. But it will still be very costly.
And if things go well, Africa might becomes the new source of electricity for its abundance of sunlight. Of course, like right now, they don't have any tech yet...
For being able to time-shift solar, that seems like a bargain. A recent internet undersea cable[0] cost $300 million for the entire project.
[0] https://www.computerworld.com/article/2939316/googles-60tbps...