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Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

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Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#31

Post by simion314 »

blocked_again wrote: post #15

Governments should stick to governence and stop doing stupid shit.

Like what? Without government doing infrastructure probably most people would not have a electricity,water and a decent road in front of their home.

Or how would we imagine an alternate reality where the governments are weak, so the industrial billionaires would be the ones deciding what infrastructure to build, what science to research, what level of education is needed etc. I can only see just a few roads , with taxes on them, electricity only in the city, education and hygiene only for the rich(in fact there were governmental/king laws that forced people not to shit everywhere).

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#32

Post by pphysch »

gberger wrote: post #27
streamofdigits wrote: post #24

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

There isn't even a nation-wide electrical grid in the USA. Having a global grid is a futuristic pipe dream.

Not a pipe dream because it is futuristic, but because it is geopolitical.

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#33

Post by ZeroGravitas »

souenzzo wrote: post #4

Isn't cheaper turn the electricity into liquid hydrogen?! Hydrogen can be stored for months, delivered by car, tubes, ships, etc Do not have many losses across long distances

Chile has big plans to export green hydrogen and green ammonia as well as doing this.

Presumably once you ship some amount to the same location, the cable starts to make sense.

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#34

Post by pphysch »

streamofdigits wrote: post #24

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

Current gang in Canberra/Washington would never do a joint infrastructure project with Beijing, so that Chile might as well go directly there.

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#35

Post by blocked_again »

simion314 wrote: post #31
blocked_again wrote: post #15

Governments should stick to governence and stop doing stupid shit.

Like what? Without government doing infrastructure probably most people would not have a electricity,water and a decent road in front of their home. Or how would we imagine an alternate reality where the governments are weak, so the industrial billionaires would be the ones deciding what infrastructure to build, what science to research, what level of education is needed etc. I can only see just a few roads , with ta…

Imagine a power generation company run by Joe Biden with his white House staff vs Elon Musk with his Tesla staff. Which stock would you buy? I bet the Biden company will go bankrupt in a few years let alone go public.

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#36

Post by hjnilsson »

ameminator wrote: post #22

I dont think this makes much sense - even if the fundamental premise (sending solar energy under thousands of kilometers at massive initial and maintenance costs) had immediate economic merit, there are closer places like Australia. Even then, the fundamental benefit of solar energy is it's distributed nature. With something like nuclear power, however, there might be more use...

I believe the purpose of this is to generate solar power at night. Australia won’t help China there since it is in a nearby timezone.

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#37

Post by dane-pgp »

gberger wrote: post #27
streamofdigits wrote: post #24

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

There isn't even a nation-wide electrical grid in the USA. Having a global grid is a futuristic pipe dream.

> Having a global grid is a futuristic pipe dream.

It's more like a series of tubes.

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#38

Post by dakial1 »

mikeyouse wrote: post #17
mikece wrote: post #10

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…

It's on the order of 1.5%/1,000KM, so something like 20%-25% loss. Edit: a Chinese project with a 1.5%/1,000KM loss http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0622/c90000-9474097.html

So the cost (price) of energy in the other end (china) should be 25%+ (plus the expected ROIC) to make this endeavor worthwhile

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#39

Post by syntheticcorp »

ameminator wrote: post #22

I dont think this makes much sense - even if the fundamental premise (sending solar energy under thousands of kilometers at massive initial and maintenance costs) had immediate economic merit, there are closer places like Australia. Even then, the fundamental benefit of solar energy is it's distributed nature. With something like nuclear power, however, there might be more use...

Australia already has a plan for this in the works to supply Singapore with solar from the outback. It’s called Sun Cable - see: https://suncable.sg/

Re: Chile wants to export solar energy to Asia via 15,000km submarine cable

#40

Post by streamofdigits »

gberger wrote: post #27
streamofdigits wrote: post #24

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

There isn't even a nation-wide electrical grid in the USA. Having a global grid is a futuristic pipe dream.

If we condition on people taking the energy transition seriously the past might not be a good predictor of the future. But whether there will be a strong pull towards "optimality" might depend on what is the total cost of sub-optimal alternatives. I would think that a well distributed grid would also minimize (beside losses) also storage costs and would also have various other redundancy benefits...
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