(Bloomberg) — In a world that’s effectively burning with massive heatwaves, unprecedented wildfires and drought, the increasing toll of the climate crisis has become readily apparent. If a global green pivot is to happen, power grids must become “supergrids,” continent-spanning networks that can move clean energy thousands of miles.
The good news is transmission technology that’s critical to making that happen is here. The bad news is that politics and people still stand in the way. On this episode of “Power Moves,” we explore how a method of electrical grid transmission that fell out of favor during the 20th century—direct current—has returned to help turn the tide against global warming. If only we let it, that is.
As the world tries to solve the puzzle of decarbonization, we’ve come to understand that new wind and solar capacity won’t be enough. We also need to build infrastructure that can move huge amounts of electricity over long distances, transferring power from the windy and sunny places where it’s generated to the population centers where it will be used. And to do so without losing too much of it along the way.
To that end, companies and governments all over the world are planning long-distance transmission lines that will ultimately comprise “supergrids,” electricity networks that will span continents, oceans and ultimately the entire planet. The technology that makes this possible— high-voltage direct current—is now ready for primetime.
Progress varies widely by region, however. Europe is perhaps furthest along, with numerous interconnectors enabling the trading of electricity across borders, broadening the market for renewable energy produced in high-wind areas like the North Sea. China meanwhile is in the process of building so-called “ultra-high voltage” lines that will bring many hundreds of gigawatts of renewable energy from its wide open West to the cities and industrial centers of the East. But in other places there are obstacles. Building massive power lines through skeptical landowners’ property has proved a tough sell in America, and linking the power systems of less-than-friendly nations—like China and the US, for example—is an even bigger challenge.
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