4 ms·
You could imagine building a globe-spanning power distribution network. Solar panels on one side of the planet could provide power at night on the other side of
by dantillberg 6y ago
You could imagine building a globe-spanning power distribution network. Solar panels on one side of the planet could provide power at night on the other side of the planet.
- DubiousPusher 6y agoI bet the power transportation cost and loss would be too significant.
- cwhiz 6y agoIf we could transmit power across vast distances like that then we wouldn't even need to bother with solar. We could build a thousand nuclear power plants in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, power transmission suffers from line losses. Even a few hundred miles requires several hundred thousand volts to avoid losses. Maybe that's an easier problem to solve than fusion.
- Ygg2 6y agoYou'd JUST need to move current from AC to DC, and span the whole of earth with superconductor cables. You know, easy stuff to build and maintain.
- D-Coder 6y agoUse the local electricity to crack water into H2 and O2. Release the O2, use the local electricity to compress the H2 into liquid hydrogen, pump in across the country. The pipes themselves are a storage facility.
- akvadrako 6y agoChina has built a 1100 kV line for 12 GW with losses of only 1.5% per 1000 km. source: http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0622/c90000-9474097.html http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0622/c90000-9474097.html
- stjohnswarts 6y agoThat's impossible, unless you have an invention for extremely cheap superconductors that you've been hiding away.
- realusername 6y agoElectricity transport losses makes that impossible.