3 ms·

> Your figures on transmission lines are badly dated. UK is building a transmission line to a solar farm in Africa. Perhaps I have not made it clear enough tha

> Your figures on transmission lines are badly dated. UK is building a transmission line to a solar farm in Africa. Perhaps I have not made it clear enough that I am dealing in reality rather than things that do not exist? This cable and project are not real yet. They have yet to build the very factory that will manufacture this cable. Also, I am talking about land-based power. The US infrastructure. Europe is screwed in so many forms that they have to resort to such things. This cable is horrifically dangerous in so many ways. Talk about boiling the ocean! 10 GW will do that. I wonder how that accident will compare to an oil spill? From a strategic perspective, bringing in 8% of your nation's power needs from a place like Morocco via an underwater cable does not sound like a great geopolitical strategy. Unless we want to imagine something like a large or regional war can never happen... Then again, the UK might have few choices. I don't think they can do solar at this scale in-country. I would think they can do a massive amount of offshore wind. This is puzzling to me. I don't understand a strategy that creates such a dependency. Look at what happened to Germany and others with Russia. I don't get it. An underwater cable pushing that kind of voltage and power for such a long distance is likely an ecological disaster waiting to happen. I'm sure they have safeguards...just like offshore oil rigs.

moloch-hai 4y ago
You want to 'deal in reality'? Do you really doubt UK's transmission line will work? Maybe look into existing HVDC lines already in service, then. UK's folly in relying on Morocco for power is way off topic. UK certainly is not limited to relying on power from Morocco. They could put up solar fencing in their abundant pasture, sharing with livestock that will keep down weeds. But UK is not known for excellent governance, lately.
dragonwriter 4y ago
> Talk about boiling the ocean! 10 GW will do that. 10GW, ignoring the ability to shed energy over time, would take ~16 million years to boil the ocean.
Schroedingersat 4y ago
> Talk about boiling the ocean! 10 GW will do that. I wonder how that accident will compare to an oil spill? Yet another demonstration of a complete inability to perform basic arithmetic or critical reasoning. If for some reason it were to break and put all the energy into the ocean, and then for some reason the operators decided to put $100k of energy into the ocean each hour rather than turning it off. Then it would be about 20% more than browns ferry dumps into wheeler lake under normal operation.

moloch-hai 4y ago

You want to 'deal in reality'? Do you really doubt UK's transmission line will work? Maybe look into existing HVDC lines already in service, then. UK's folly in relying on Morocco for power is way off topic. UK certainly is not limited to relying on power from Morocco. They could put up solar fencing in their abundant pasture, sharing with livestock that will keep down weeds. But UK is not known for excellent governance, lately.

dragonwriter 4y ago

> Talk about boiling the ocean! 10 GW will do that. 10GW, ignoring the ability to shed energy over time, would take ~16 million years to boil the ocean.

Schroedingersat 4y ago

> Talk about boiling the ocean! 10 GW will do that. I wonder how that accident will compare to an oil spill? Yet another demonstration of a complete inability to perform basic arithmetic or critical reasoning. If for some reason it were to break and put all the energy into the ocean, and then for some reason the operators decided to put $100k of energy into the ocean each hour rather than turning it off. Then it would be about 20% more than browns ferry dumps into wheeler lake under normal operation.