
Creating a 21st Century Grid
Date: Sunday, November 11, 2007 @ 15:43:02 UTC Topic: General
by Stephen Lacey, Staff Writer/ Peterborough, New Hampshire [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
In 1957, as Eisenhower began his second term as U.S. President, the first satellite launched into orbit and the first commercial nuclear reactor came online, electrical workers all over the country were installing the world's most advanced transmission and distribution (T&D) system. Today, much of that T&D system installed 50 years ago remains in place, holding together a patchwork grid for ever-expanding electricity markets.
Now in 2007 – the age of the internet, personal digital media and
distributed energy — the grid has failed to keep pace with the rapidly
changing technological landscape. While most industries rely on
technologies that have been invented or updated in the last few years,
the electricity delivery industry uses technologies that have more or
less stayed the same for 100 years.
There's
a common idiom that goes, “if it ain't broke don't fix it.” While the
grid in the U.S. is hardly broken, it is beginning to deteriorate
rapidly in some places, and it will need some serious repairs in order
to meet the growing demand for electricity in general and distributed
renewable electricity specifically.
“We need to see a very substantial transformation of the system,” says David Meyer, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). “We're outgrowing it in many
parts of the nation. It's certainly not the high-capacity, integrated
and smart system that we need.”...
As planners look to build more of those lines, they may have some
emerging technologies to consider; particularly High Voltage Direct
Current (HVDC) and wires based on nanotechnology.
HVDC
transmission is certainly not a new concept — but it's gaining ground
in the U.S. as renewable electricity will have to be transported
further distances with higher efficiency in the future.
The
other technology still in the research and development phase is the
“armchair quantum wire,” made from tubes of carbon 100,000 times
thinner than a human hair, called carbon nanotubes. When these
nanotubes are made into a larger wire, they can conduct electricity far
more efficiently and over far greater distances than the copper wires
used today...
Full article here. [via KellyNet.com]
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