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The benefits of an intercontinental energy grid

The benefits of an intercontinental energy grid –  Science Alert By Stewart Taggart 20 January 2009Imagine an Asian electricity grid anchored by China at one end and Australia on the other. The grid would carry and distribute hemispheric solar, geothermal, wind and wave energy. The vision is big. But so’s the problem of climate change.

Start by looking at Asia’s energy status quo. Fossil fuels dominate. Renewable energy development is sporadic. National grids aren’t interconnected. Carbon costs aren’t applied. Vision is lacking.

Now, apply sensible economic and technological rationalisation. What pops out is a networked Asian electricity backbone in which efficiency, price and environmental-friendliness count. A regional grid would offer a frictionless exchange of kilowatthours akin to the frictionless exchange of electrons the Internet has brought.

The plan would entail building a 10,000-kilometer long electricity transmission system stretching from Beijing to the Great Australian Bight. Australian concentrating solar power, geothermal, wind and wave energy would flow northward. It would be joined by the harnessed geothermal power of Indonesia’s volcanoes. This torrent of Austro-Indonesian low emission energy would then wend its way across a wind farm-lined South China Sea to China. Or the transmission system could go by land through a Southeast Asia regional High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power line paralleling existing power lines in Malaysia, Thailand and Laos……………………Renewable energy delivered via a ubiquitous regional grid represents a market-based, clean energy dream-team. It’s like rolling the Internet’s packet switching, eBay’s auction methodogy and carbon priced consumer behaviour modification into one. Lastly, since everyone will be drinking from the same well, there’ll be a premium on cooperative, multilateral good-neighborliness…………………………Energy and water loom as 21st Century flashpoints. Tethering Asia to a common watering hole makes more sense than gunboat ‘go it alone’ fights over resources. Civilized, rules-based sharing seems much smarter. Wouldn’t you agree?

The benefits of an intercontinental energy grid (ScienceAlert)

January 20, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized