The U.S. Urgently Needs a Bigger Grid. Here’s a Fast Solution. A rarely used technique to upgrade old power lines could play a big role in fixing one of the largest obstacles facing clean energy

Liz, 2 months ago

Do we though? Can’t we ramp up local storage and production with solar and batteries on and in buildings?

yessikg, 1 month ago

Yes, but companies want handouts to put solar on their roof (and for the batteries too)

SomeoneSomewhere, 2 months ago

Batteries are expensive, short lived, less efficient, and polluting. They’re better than fossil fuels, but if they can be avoided they should.

Solar also isn’t very practical in CBDs, so you end up generating excess power in more rural areas and transporting it into densely populated areas, like most other commodities.

slazer2au, 2 months ago

Replacing existing power lines with cables made from state-of-the-art materials could roughly double the capacity of the electric grid in many parts of the country,

Ah but that costs money and eats into profits.

perestroika, 2 months ago

Coincidentally, there’s a cheaper way too. :)

The ratings of existing power lines can be recalculated on an hourly basis according to outdoor temperature and wind.

That however, requires software and agility, which big companies seldom have… and it doesn’t help during a heat wave with no wind, of course.

SuiXi3D, 2 months ago

Won’t be any money if there isn’t any power.

slazer2au, 2 months ago

But that won’t happen this quarter. So why pay for it from this quarter’s budget when we can deferr it until after I my promotion. Got to keep my number good.

Monument, 2 months ago

What will happen is that utilities will take about a year to file an IRP with a rate increase, have it under consideration for a year, and then when it’s invariably passed, they will subcontract the work to a corporation the utility owns (at a big markup), complete about 40% of the work, report a massive profit to their shareholders while reporting to your utility commission that they need more rate hikes, citing extenuating circumstances, the economy, the usual “please give us socialism” corporate nonsense.