Infrastructure and Energy
This is an interesting article that addresses the need for an energy transmission system that can support the development of new energy systems.
Bill Gates Says High-Voltage Power Lines Will Save America. He's Right.
But good luck getting the whole country on board.
Read in Popular Mechanics: https://apple.news/A_
It seems a bit strange to me that this article essentially retells Bill Gates' argument with little added information. The vast majority of it seems to be summarizing what Gates already wrote in his blog. However, the point about improving our transmission capacity is interesting. I wasn't aware that we needed to improve it until I read the piece.
ReplyDeleteHi Joseph, I also thought that the article lacked information. It shares nothing about the expenses of implementing these new power lines or the time it would take. I do however think that this would be very possible in the near future if more focus was put on it. I was also wondering what can everyone do to help, like should everyone be getting solar pannels or would then even be necessary if new lines were put in.
DeleteOne of the criticisms of Gates' plan is possible ramifications it could have infringing on indigenous territories and wilderness preservation. I would be curious to learn more about how exactly implementing transmission line infrastructure would be expected to impact natural areas. I also followed one of the linked articles on Bill Gates' backing of the implementation/improvement of macrogrids as part of the transmission line infrastructure and found that there are some drawbacks to macrogrids, especially considering the wildfires that have broken out in California as a result of defective equipment of macrogrids.
ReplyDeleteHi, Jamie. I agree with you. Reconciling indigenous sovereignty with US governmental or corporate interests is something that will have to be tackled. I wonder if it would be an opportunity for cooperation between many different parties. Indigenous stewardship and land concerns could be mixed with US renewable energy grid concerns.
DeleteI do think that, whatever happens there, that increased corporate accountability is absolutely necessary. The wildfires due to PG&E's equipment are unacceptable. They did not maintain their equipment, and that led to the deaths and destruction of livelihood for many. Every year, the power in my hometown is shut off due to PG&E's consistent negligence. The winds get too high, and their response to the fire risk is not to fix their equipment. Their response is to shut off the power of a major city. In what world is that a good solution? How does it make sense to shut off the power of hundreds of thousands of people? I prefer it to the risk of fire or property damage, sure; but it's hardly a solution which is feasible for the long run.
Here's a report about PG&E's mismanagement of their equipment: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/pge/oversight-and-enforcement/ism-status-update-report-q3-2022.pdf
I found it very interesting, if long. The "Emerging Observations" section is something I'd recommend checking out!
It's always interesting to me how we make these big goals to become more reliant on green power, but then fail to follow through because of various reasons. It seems like there is a general lack of education and/or empathy from the general public causing the "not in my backyard" mentality. I wonder how we could minimize this phenomenon. Maybe increased education on the subject? I'm not sure how we can change our ways if this continues to be such a big problem.
ReplyDeleteI see this a lot, especially in people with power such as our government where they would say one thing to get the votes but then once they've been voted, they make up excuses for various reasons. I believe that education is a great way to educate people but sometimes people are stubborn and want to believe what they want despite all the facts laid out right in front of them. It is a hard problem but we do need to change people's minds so they don't have such a mentality.
DeleteIt was interesting to find out that transmission lines are a must if we want to increase the levels of electric vehicles and/or other items that run off of electricity. This transition is probably difficult especially in the United States since it is such a big country. There is a lot of land to cover, and it is going to cost a lot of money. Repairment costs and safety precautions are new problems, but it may open up more opportunities and awareness of fundings necessary for this advancement. I believe that this is where fundings for climate change should go, so we can get prepared for the rapidly increasing technology that can help reduce overall carbon emissions.
ReplyDeleteHere is a post relating to a concern of this topic: https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/does-living-near-high-voltage-power-lines-cause-cancer
Since our reliance on power lines is only going to increase going into the future, it seems Bill Gates is proposing a higher-voltage power line system to prevent the problems associated with finding room for (and organizing in a coherent manner) more power lines, both in the US and abroad. With many upset over power line construction near their homes (and perhaps even a rise in conspiracy theories associated with this), it seems that this proposal is an important step forward, given that we continue making strides in finding (and expanding the current use of) renewable energy sources.
ReplyDeleteAs the article’s author expresses skepticism regarding the ease of convincing others to mak this transition––“good luck getting the whole country on board,” it states––I, too, wonder how the case will be made in a persuasive yet informative manner.
The need for transmission lines in an increasingly electric future poses a lot of questions regarding the country's ability to transport electricity in high-volume. Like the article states, there's the issue of interfering with wilderness preservations and indigenous territory. One possible solution to this issue is the implementation of underground transmission lines, but this solution too comes with issues of its own. While they solve the dangers associated with building above-ground transmission lines in wildlife-populated areas, they're very costly and difficult to maintain [1]. Becoming carbon-neutral is extremely important in the next coming years as climate change continues to negatively affect our environment, but careful consideration is needed as we incorporate new solutions such as higher-voltage power lines.
ReplyDelete[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/sunday-review/drawing-the-line-at-power-lines.html
I think that understanding the affects of our actions on wildlife and other various places is very important when considering the needs of our future. One such example are the higher-voltage power lines. I think that we should also be thinking of other things that we will be reliant on in the future and how we can easily integrate that into our society. We have to have a healthy balance between history and future technology.
DeleteI found this article to be very enlightening. As clean energy get brought up more and more, we rarely hear about transmission lines as a major part of the solution. It is always to switch to clean energy, use electric cars, stoves, etc, which is a big reason why I think it gets so much resistance from people. The less they know, the more that they'll be wary. While that is only part of it, the problem of high implementation costs, land coverage, and more, I think are easily solvable with money support, as seen from Bill Gates and his contributions. We have made good progress so far with our alternative energy sources and I think that transmission lines will not prove to be too troublesome.
ReplyDeleteI found this article (https://www.science.org/content/article/better-power-lines-would-help-us-supercharge-renewable-energy-study-suggests) that talks more about power lines that I find interesting.
While this project seems to have the money support from Bill Gates and likely other wealthy individuals, that doesn't seem to be the limiting factor. The problem with transmission lines seems to be a lack of knowledge from the general public. The Not in my Backyard resistance and safety concerns are two of the main opposition points that could be halted with an increase in the information relayed about transmission lines. Gates said that, "Climate change is the hardest problem that humanity has ever faced..." This goes to show that he is very passionate about transmission lines and he should use his influence to spread more information on why he believes so strongly in this solution.
DeleteThis article gave me a new viewpoint on how we are able to change into renewable energy. I never actually thought of how energy would be stored and transmitted, only the big idea of renewable sources of energy. Reading Bill Gate's take on improving transmission lines certainly gave me a new insight on the changes we need to do on battling climate change, and I feel as if his idea is able to persuade others as well. When developing new technologies that require power, Improving transmission lines can be both beneficial in renewable energies and future development.
ReplyDeleteI found this article, https://www.eenews.net/articles/more-more-more-bidens-clean-grid-hinges-on-power-lines/, that talks about how beneficial transmission line investment can be.
This was a very interesting article, as I didn't realize how much of a change adapting more powerlines would take. However, this change shows to be much easier said than done, with many different obstacles being in the way. Some obstacles include the presence of policy issues such as planning, paying, and permitting these new lines along with the strong opposition of creating new transmission lines.
ReplyDeleteThe following article goes over what drives people to oppose the infrastructure of high-volage transmission lines:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271882615_What_drives_opposition_to_high-voltage_transmission_lines
This article was intriguing to me and something that I have heard lingering around for years now. It seems like it can be a challenge to make an idea a reality or at least it progresses more slowly than we know it. I think that ideas like Bill Gates's should have raised awareness so that people would understand his idea and agree with it, by doing that raising awareness to U.S. politicians to make a change regarding the issue or proposition.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting and it gave me alot of new information about renewable energy. It showed me that change is easier than alot of people think we just have to adapt to change to allow it to fully happen. Since powerlines are increasing, Bill Gates promoting a new high voltage system to help reduce powerlines is a great idea. Not only are powerlines dangerous but nobody wants powerlines near their home. It would be good to reduce them and switch to renewable energy because not only is it safer but it looks better and is cleaner than a powerline system. My question is although Bill Gates is trying to help out with the powerlines issue what else can we do to help reduce powerlines?
ReplyDeleteThis article was interesting to me because I wasn't aware of the need for this upgrade in infrastructure until reading this. I had never considered how power lines are a big aspect of the grid which are also important to be effective because I had never thought that some could be very different from others. I was also a little shocked to find out about how Bill Gates was the one encouraging this. I did not know about Gates's efforts towards a green energy future so, this was a surprise.
ReplyDeleteThis article was a big help in understanding why an upgrade in energy transmission infrastructure is necessary: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-renewables-electric-grid/
I enjoyed reading this article and found it fascinating how big of a change this could make. The author does bring up a good point and that is that it would be very difficult to get this off the ground due to its sheer size and complexity. Let alone the damage it might do to some ecosystems all across the country. I think this is a good idea, but it will probably never see the light of day. Other alternatives to this idea is using the green house gas emissions to create better forms of energy and solve the electricity demand that way. This would solve the problem stated in the article but it would also repurpose the greenhouse gases that are destroying our planet into a reliable energy source that could be used in factories and even homes in the future. Here is an article that advocates for net zero methane emissions in the United States by repurposing it for other things.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bp.com/en_us/united-states/home/who-we-are/advocating-for-net-zero-in-the-us/methane-emissions.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=us_naturalgas_direct&utm_term=gas%20emissions&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8e-gBhD0ARIsAJiDsaUx04EIHXSxKbWuBmcou42PWfNLcVVtT3HzjJ4KS9i8sv1yLOnV41AaApGdEALw_wcB