The grid and renewables: supersize me
Climate talks in Poznan, Poland, this week included a meeting to discuss the concept of a super-grid that would connect renewable-rich regions to energy-hungry regions via high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) cables. It’s an attractive idea. If Iceland has all the geothermal, North Africa has the solar, Scotland has the offshore wind and the coasts can tap wave power, why not build a grid that can carry that emission-free power to inland population centres that rely on fossil fuels and nuclear?
The same thinking is happening in the United States. That is, the idea of modernizing and beefing up the grid so solar power in the southwest and wind in the mid-west can be carried to other parts of the United States less rich in renewable resources. Guys like Al Gore, Barrack Obama and Vinod Khosla are big promoters of a smart-grid buildout, and rightly so.
It’s an inevitable course. If the oil and gas companies can build massive pipelines that pump petroleum from one side of the continent to the other, there’s no reason we can’t get to a stage where the abundant electrons in a nation’s solar, wind, water and geothermal “reserves” can be pumped to far-off markets in need.
Tags: smart grid
Tyler Hamilton is a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
December 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
The whole scheme sounds like an absurdly expensive work around of the flaws of renewables. This is simply another example of the desperate attempts of Greens and mercenary renewables advocates to do without nuclear power. Generation IV nuclear technology, especially the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor will bring the price of nuclear power dramatically down, while solving the problems of Generation
II and III nuclear technology.
December 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
[...] The grid and renewables: supersize me Climate talks in Poznan, Poland, this week included a meeting to discuss the concept of a super-grid that would connect renewable-rich regions to energy-hungry regions via high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) cables. It’s an attractive idea. If Iceland has all the geothermal, North Africa has the solar, Scotland has the offshore wind and the coasts can tap wave power, why not build a grid that can carry that emission-free power to inland population centres that rely on fossil fuels and nuclear? [...]
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 am
I partialy translated it to spanish and commented in my blog: http://indarki.blogia.com/2008/122201-redes-electricas-xxl.php
Attractive idea but with some “BUTs”:
- A supergrid means the construction of lots of km of electric lines, socially and environmently questioned in many places and by many groups.
- Far transportation of electricity involves lots of energy looses
- To move away production from energy usage makes people less aware of what this consumption involve and it is harder to hold and reduce this energy consumption.
The renewables and the smart grids can be inevitable but I’m not sure the supergrid it’s the better path.