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> You need a worldwide transmission network that supplies electricity to wherever it is needed. Now that's a whole bigger challenge than you started out with.
by chickenbig 2y ago
> You need a worldwide transmission network that supplies electricity to wherever it is needed.
Now that's a whole bigger challenge than you started out with. The XLinks project [1] is a proposed 3.6GW 4,000 km undersea link from Morocco to the UK. The cost of the inter-connector alone is 11B GBP, so approximately 0.75M GBP per MW-km.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlinks_Morocco–UK_Power_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlinks_Morocco–UK_Power_Projec...
- OutOfHere 2y agoGoing by your logic, once upon a time, I figure you would have said the same thing for the internet: "Why invest so much in a global communication network when regional servers can work cheaply, and still exchange data by snail mail?"
- chickenbig 2y ago> Why invest so much in a global communication network when regional servers can work cheaply That's the system we have; CDNs, Google Global Cache [0], Netflix Open Connect [1] . Location matters, even for bits and bytes, because infrastructure is expensive. Perhaps you are missing how large and expensive the cables are. See [2] for 2014 cable spec and costings. ---- [0] https://support.google.com/interconnect/answer/9058809?hl=en https://support.google.com/interconnect/answer/9058809?hl=en [1] https://openconnect.netflix.com/en_gb/appliances/ https://openconnect.netflix.com/en_gb/appliances/ [2] https://www.nationalgrid.com/sites/default/files/documents/37783-ETYS%202014%20Appendix%20E%20-%20Technology.pdf https://www.nationalgrid.com/sites/default/files/documents/3...