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Admiral_Fancypants t1_ixcyqjv wrote

Reply to comment by manual_tranny in HVDC macrogrid would reduce climate pollutants and electricity costs while transmitting low-cost renewable power by manual_tranny

That's news to me. Glad to hear that our 100 year old grid can be improved upon.

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VitaminPb t1_ixd9yq9 wrote

If you read it, they need buried lengths of 50-95 KM cable (big slop factor there, non trivial task to dig) to break even, and about 800+KM runs for non-buried cables. Those are very long cable runs.

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danielv123 t1_ixdxq0o wrote

Yep. The reason we have AC instead of DC on the grid is because semiconductors wasn't a thing when the grid started, which meant there was no good replacement for transformers.

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SentientHotdogWater t1_iy0nmlq wrote

Our grid isn't actually 100 years old. It's been getting continuously rebuilt and upgraded this entire time.

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NH_Living_Free t1_ixdtwod wrote

The biggest thing standing in the way is politics. Texas, as one example, is on its own grid, which has failed several times over the past three years alone in both hot and cold weather. This map shows Texas connected to the same grid, which I don’t see as politically feasible. Remember, they still re-elected Greg Abbott.

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