QUOTE=Titanium Cat;172358
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One it will be expansive so they’d prefer that the government paid for part of it or at least mandated the development in a way that guaranteed profitable access to AC power grid markets. The purpose would be to make green renewable sources in remote areas more competitive with the construction of new dirty sources. The major producers (with the most capital to invest) which rely heavily on coal generated power might not think it was a good investment, they’d prefer to build new plants closer to their customers.
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Just seems to me if there was money to be made, whether the energy companies paid for it themselves or needed help from the government, they would already be lobbying for it. Is Kennedy the only person to see the benefit?
Those current coal operators have seen the writing on the walls where locals and the federal government are not so keen on allowing any more coal power plants. Until they can scrub 100% of the CO2 from their emissions, their growth is done.
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Two, such transmission lines would cross a variety of state lines and potentially both private property and government protected areas such as parks. Various agencies might not approve zoning regulations if they suspect the lines would be used to transmit dirty power.
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The right of eminent domain usually cannot be stopped once someone makes the decision to build. If a HVDC line makes any sense at all, except for my position of creating and supplying power locally, then it should be built.
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An interesting problem (which I wish I had) but one that is pretty atypical of most localized power generation at least in urban settings where the vast majority of people live.
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There are also a vast quantity of people who live in rural areas and these are the people, at least in my opinion, who are initiating the growth in solar and wind installations. When we want AC power to another part of our land the energy companies have no problems quoting $50K to $100K cost! We get tired of power outages each time one of billions of trees falls and breaks the power line while we wait 1-2 days for service. And like most everyone, we don't like being held hostage in a monopoly situation.
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I think it will be more than a few years before we have any sort of practical cold fusion system and even longer before we start producing a significant amount of power from them.
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I was just joking some about cold fusion. If it was going to work I think someone would have figured it out by now. As I sit in my office, perched high on our hilltop, watching the wind blow the trees around, enjoying the bright and warm sunshine, I can't help but believe that the answer to our power issues might be right in front of our eyes. We know we can harness solar and wind, although with low efficiencies, but I'm guessing there's another science or math at play that is yet to be discovered...