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No one knows what the Chinese power grid does because it is a national secret. You can have a look at the power grids of the first world, like the European, Nor
by buzzkillington 7y ago
No one knows what the Chinese power grid does because it is a national secret. You can have a look at the power grids of the first world, like the European, North America and Australian ones.
Europe is the only one with a true large scale interconnected grid[0] and even there the interconnects are expensive, small and marginal. With the majority of EU population being able to import or export only ~20% of the power generated locally.
The US and Australian grids are even less connected, with the project you're quoting being simply a pipe dream to steal money from idiots. I've worked in data analysis for an energy company and renewables are amazing because they make the energy markets volatile and unpredictable. They allow rent-seeking in power generation. Something that hadn't been possible for decades.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_grid_of_Continental_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_grid_of_Continenta...
- nl 7y agoThe Chinese power grid isn't especially secret. Data is available here[1] or a good write-up on Wikipedia[2]. I live in Australia so I know it pretty well. My state (South Australia) has multiple ~1000km interconnects with more being planned. Australia remains badly underconnected compared to other markets. Wikipedia has good data[3], and your idea about "looking at the first world" is dramatically outdated. Most new power generation is being done in Asia (and to some degree Africa) which is where these long distance power transmission lines are mostly being built. If you don't trust the Chinese ones (not sure why - you can go visit a lot of these installations because the hydro dams are tourist attractions, and you can see them on Google Maps) you can just look at the multiple 1000km+ installations in India[4]. [1] https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/category/stats/ https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/category/stats/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HVDC_projects#Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HVDC_projects#Asia
- akvadrako 7y agoIt’s not about the distance of the transmission lines - it’s the capacity. You lose a lot more energy moving electricity through small wires then oil in tanks.
- nl 7y agoI thought that this was the case but I did some reading and I was very surprised at how little HVDC lines lose - roughly 3% per 1000km (a lot less than AC transmission). The new Ultra high voltage lines in China and elsewhere are even more efficient. This explains why the Chinese are able to keep their power generation capacity so far away from their main population centres.