The Future of Power Is Transcontinental, Submarine Supergrids
Jun 09 2021, 10:18 PM
June 09 2021, 1:30 PM
June 09 2021, 10:18 PM
(Bloomberg Businessweek) Ever since President Xi Jinping pitched the idea of a âglobal energy internetâ to the United Nations six years ago, Chinaâs been trying to persuade the world to build the high voltage highways that would form its backbone. That plan to wrap the planet in a web of intercontinental, made-in-Beijing power lines has gone pretty much nowhere. Yet the fortunes of so-called supergrids appear to be turning, if not.
(Bloomberg Businessweek) Ever since President Xi Jinping pitched the idea of a âglobal energy internetâ to the United Nations six years ago, Chinaâs been trying to persuade the world to build the high voltage highways that would form its backbone. That plan to wrap the planet in a web of intercontinental, made-in-Beijing power lines has gone pretty much nowhere. Yet the fortunes of so-called
Genevieve Starke
Graduate student, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Clean, renewable wind energy now accounts for more than 8% of the U.S. s electricity generation, up from about 4% in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In March, President Joe Biden announced a plan to expand offshore wind energy projects, part of a larger initiative to vastly increase the country s renewable energy production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Last week, the administration officially approved the country s first major offshore wind farm near Massachusetts.
But large-scale wind farms present new engineering challenges. Classical engineering models formerly used to estimate power output for moderately sized wind farms don t always work reliably for today s larger wind farms, where complex turbine arrangements are more common, Gayme says.