There is no doubt that over long distance, global energy network based on HV DC is the only logical choice.
With HV DC you could wire every single country to one monster grid , trade and sell electricity at will , compensate for time zones and local energy fluctuations.
The same is almost impossible with existing AC mess.

Now from this 500,000 V we need to distribute energy to every single home in the most efficient and elegant manner.
I am looking for complete network, one simple logical organism.
Somehow doesn't seems right to switch back to AC unless there is absolutely no other way around.
Nobody I know tried to build complete network based on DC but that doesn't mean that can not be done.

Macroscien said...
Nobody I know tried to build complete network based on DC but that doesn't mean that can not be done.

Maybe there are some good reasons nobody tried to do it Perhaps it would be best to steer this debate back towards solar power, no?

d1 said...

Maybe there are some good reasons nobody tried to do it Perhaps it would be best to steer this debate back towards solar power, no?

Maybe you are right but I do try to save us a lot of money on solar panel installation.
At this moment for every dollar you spent on your solar panel you need to send another one for inverters,
Inverter that will eat your hard earned electricity and is most likely to fail long before your solar panel will.
I don't think current invereters will work longer then 5-10 years without failure. Your panel on another hand will last probably 20 year, loosing a bit of efficiency but still may work next 100.

I try to design complete system that is the most cost effective , efficient and logical for next thousand years to come.

I worked on the Greenough River Solar Farm out near Geraldton last year. Largest solar farm in the southern hemisphere.

We just stuck the PV cells in the ground and then all this money magically showed up on these big trucks.





That thing in the middle of the picture is very big and very important, there's 8 of them in Greenough. The Solar panels are the easy part. This thing will be pulled down in 25 years, and obsolete in 2014.

rather than trying to distribute all this energy from a remote area why don't you use the energy right there when the panels are producing. Maybe something like hydrogen production

We could talk about technical improvements in % forever but in reality from now on the solar technology is mature enough to enter the proper investment market,

With shown above scale I doubt investment in solar farm could be worse then in forest plantation.
To calculate real return on investment we need to find out the real cost of such installation in Australia.
We have to know:
- what is the cost of the deserted land per 1 km2 in suitable location
- cost of additional structure and infarastructure : foundations for sceleton frames, mounting, labor to install 100 kw, fences,
-cost of connecting farm to the grid from their side
-shipping panel from Aussie port to remote location ( we know that shipping from China cost only $1000 per container load)

All we know is cost of solar panels and associated electronics inverters.

That will be at this moment:

100kw system x $1 per Watt = $100,000

output

100 kw x 5kwh per day x $0.06 price of kw x 365 day per year = $10,950

so assuming that there are no other cost but solar panel and electronics return is 11%

We could correct this down by knowing the real cost mentioned above.

We could correct this up by cranking the price from $0.06 to 20c or more ( by selling to locals at better price, using the energy on spot for secondary production ( aluminium smelting ? car battery charging, installing storage onsite and selling only at peak prices etc )

As we could see even at this scale it is not magic investment able to double the money in one year, on another hand still could be realistic and solid investment no worse that many other on Australian Stock Exchange.

www.greenoughsolarfarm.com.au/about-us

Do you realise your calculation above says $0.40 per Kw? Is that correct for selling to your customers? They are going to have to pay an access fee for the other power suppliers, so is there any advantage going with your power at all? What if it is cloudy?

Are your customers going to use power at your peak periods every day of the year? What if they are only using power weekdays?

Just to add more trouble to your idea, I doubt any authority would only allow you to deliver power at the times that you want for the price that you want. I think it would mess up their power calculations. You seem to want to take the best possible scenario for making money from power and leaving the uneconomic power generation to someone else.

Why not just go do it. You can make a fortune and laugh at us all.

Your calculations for real estate also seem too good to be true. Are there always tenants? Are there any ongoing costs for water and sewerage? Are the tenants happy with just a concrete shell?

With an open clean energy market there would always be some one willing to sell them green energy at slightly cheaper price and bang you got zero return on your energy investment

FormulaNova said...
Do you realise your calculation above says $0.40 per Kw? Is that correct for selling to your customers? They are going to have to pay an access fee for the other power suppliers, so is there any advantage going with your power at all? What if it is cloudy?

Are your customers going to use power at your peak periods every day of the year? What if they are only using power weekdays?

Just to add more trouble to your idea, I doubt any authority would only allow you to deliver power at the times that you want for the price that you want. I think it would mess up their power calculations. You seem to want to take the best possible scenario for making money from power and leaving the uneconomic power generation to someone else.

Why not just go do it. You can make a fortune and laugh at us all.

Your calculations for real estate also seem too good to be true. Are there always tenants? Are there any ongoing costs for water and sewerage? Are the tenants happy with just a concrete shell?

Solar powered grow room?