HVDC Transmission Is A Key Climate Wedge & Spreading Rapidly
<p>One of the big levers for decarbonizing our global energy is by connecting continent-scale grids with high-voltage direct current transmission (HVDC). We’ve been doing a lot of that already, but a lot more is planned. There are about 200 GW of HVDC cables stretching 58,000 kilometers in operation today, and about 180 GW planned stretching about 45,000 kilometers in planning and construction. The large majority of what’s in operation is in China, of course.</p>
<p>Let’s start with the why. As delayers love to say, the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine all the time. But go north, south, east, and west a few hundred or a couple of thousand kilometers, and the weather is completely different. We’ll be overbuilding renewables in the best places and connecting them to the highest demand centers like major cities, ports and industrial sites. The sun may not shine brightly during peak demand periods of the late afternoon and early evening, but it’s shining brightly a couple of time zones or more to the west.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/hvdc-transmission-is-a-key-climate-wedge-spreading-rapidly-4d7fe0169eba"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>