What do you think of a global electric grid?

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28 May 2009, 8:02 pm

I think it's a good idea, but it won't happen in our life time. The big oil guys won't allow it. Ideas like this would benefit humanity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVI3BRBC6o[/youtube]

ruveyn
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28 May 2009, 9:13 pm

knowledgeiskey wrote:

I think it's a good idea, but it won't happen in our life time. The big oil guys won't allow it. Ideas like this would benefit humanity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVI3BRBC6o[/youtube]

How would isolated continents share electricity with the rest of the world? For example Japan or Australia. They are essentially islands. I am at a loss to see how intercontinental load leveling would work.

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MattShizzle
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28 May 2009, 9:15 pm

Yeah, this sounds fishy. Honestly, probably the best source of energy for electricity most places is nuclear energy. Using oil for it is stupid.

Asmodeus
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28 May 2009, 9:27 pm

One of the requirements for this is peace, therefore this cannot begin.
However, there is no energy crisis, much in the same way there is no water crisis. There is enough nuclear material to last beyond the lifetime of anyone here, beyond which sufficient renewable sources would have been found. Newer and more efficient solar panels and other things are being developed.

Fuller's ideas are pretty cool, the dymaxion home being my favourite.

knowledgeiskey
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28 May 2009, 11:05 pm

ruveyn wrote:

knowledgeiskey wrote:

I think it's a good idea, but it won't happen in our life time. The big oil guys won't allow it. Ideas like this would benefit humanity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVI3BRBC6o[/youtube]

You're acting as if it's impossible. Continents can work together to build links .It may take money and lots of years to get it done, but it can be done.

Heck, there was a cable that spanned from North America to Europe in the 1800s. It was used to convey information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlan ... raph_cable

knowledgeiskey
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28 May 2009, 11:15 pm

Asmodeus wrote:

There is no crisis, but it is better to do something now before it's too late.

Yeah, Fuller was a futurist. He predicted the internet years ago. He also predicted the ways young people would use it.It comes out that he was correct.

I like his designs also.

Here is a couple of his videos.

Do you think he had any Aspie traits?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcB9JPlgaoM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwbcNmxxSMc[/youtube]

skysaw
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29 May 2009, 6:50 am

A global electric grid would put too much power in too few hands (no pun intended).

Of course, that wouldn't be a problem if I were the Mr Big with my hand on the lever.

Keeno
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29 May 2009, 6:30 pm

knowledgeiskey wrote:

Heck, there was a cable that spanned from North America to Europe in the 1800s. It was used to convey information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlan ... raph_cable

See [url=http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~31361~1150308:The-World-on-Mercator-s-projection-?qvq=q:World_Area="World"+;sort:Pub_Date,Pub_List_No_InitialSort;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=961&trs=1090]this[/url]link to see how comprehensive the global telegraphic network was by 1883.

pakled
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29 May 2009, 7:29 pm

well, if we could all agree on a common standard for power... There'd have to be some big mamma-jama transformers and voltage regulators at the border...

Woodpecker
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30 May 2009, 10:24 am

An all AC world wide power grid would be a very bad idea, but if a mixture of AC and DC systems are used then it could be done. What is needed are AC to DC to AC systems to link the different power grids. Such a link offers a way to stop a problem in one power grid causing another one to fail.

Also it allows different grids operating at different frequencies to be linked, otherwise you have the problem that the US are on 60 Hz while almost all of the world is on 50 Hz.

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30 May 2009, 11:24 pm

The bigger they are the harder they fall! And besides, Do you remember what Enron did to California?

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Electric_Kite
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31 May 2009, 12:16 am

I think it's a good idea. And not exactly new, do not Western European nations have linked grids already?

MattShizzle wrote:

Yeah, this sounds fishy. Honestly, probably the best source of energy for electricity most places is nuclear energy. Using oil for it is stupid.

Naw. The thing to do is to make electric generators that are big rotor kites and launch them a couple of miles up, where the wind is steady and constant regardless of whatever the surface geography makes it do on the ground. The generator sends its output back to the ground via its own tether. It's be cheaper to build than a windmill, because it requires less material, it would provide a more efficient and constant output than a windmill, and unlike a nuclear plant it doesn't make for waste-disposal problems. You'd just have to ground them all during lightning storms and guide air-traffic around them.

protest_the_hero
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31 May 2009, 11:37 am

It won't happen in our life time, eh? I don't know how old you are, but who knows what might happen in the next fifty years.

Asmodeus
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31 May 2009, 11:34 pm

knowledgeiskey wrote:

Asmodeus wrote:

I've seen his last talks, he rambles on about the difference between then and now. I know little of his personal life, and so can't make a judgement to whether he has autistic traits.

I think that it's likely we'll end up using hydroelectric fuel cells, recently someone claimed to have invented them, like people like Tesla never existed.

knowledgeiskey
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01 Jun 2009, 8:26 pm

Electric_Kite wrote:

I think it's a good idea. And not exactly new, do not Western European nations have linked grids already?

MattShizzle wrote:

Yeah, this sounds fishy. Honestly, probably the best source of energy for electricity most places is nuclear energy. Using oil for it is stupid.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguEk06Wb-U[/youtube]

pakled
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01 Jun 2009, 9:53 pm

well, we can use wave motion (from the ocean, some even want to harness the gulf stream), wind, solar, etc. The only drawback is that they're not consistent. Still, whatever can supply the power reliably, it's part of the solution.

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