[AR] Re: extreme grid interconnection
- From: Bill Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 10:24:32 -0400
Nobody is going to use existing superconductors for more than a few kilometer
(under the East River to Manhattan, for example, where the savings in power
loss justify the expense). Whether a room temperature superconductor exists is
obviously an open question. Again, the point is that the large cost of power
losses in the existing grid (I estimate that at least 20% of all power
generated in North America is loss to heating up transmission lines.) means
there is a large economic incentive to finding a better solution.
Geopolitics plays in any large power system, including SPS. The counter view is
that large international grids act as political stabilizing systems, FWIW.
Bill
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 17, 2015, at 5:46 AM, Norman Yarvin <yarvin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 03:54:22AM -0400, Bill Claybaugh wrote:
>
>> Again, the point is that such solutions are lower cost and
>> incremental to existing economic needs: as Keith has observed, power
>> loss in existing cable is expensive; which is why transmission
>> companies are experimenting with superconducting cable to replace
>> existing cable.
>
> When one considers the practicality of running power cables cooled by
> liquid nitrogen under thousands of miles of ocean, solar power
> satellites start to seem like a reasonable project.
>
> The vulnerability of a worldwide power grid to hostile acts would also
> be most extreme. The Ukraine situation offers but a faint hint of the
> opportunities for extortion that would arise from being in a position
> to cut the world's electrical throat.
>
>
> --
> Norman Yarvin http://yarchive.net/blog
>
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