{"id":290904,"date":"2023-12-11T13:23:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T12:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=290904"},"modified":"2023-12-11T13:23:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T12:23:19","slug":"net-zero-requires-new-high-voltage-power-lines-to-be-wrapped-around-the-earth-2000-times-within-17-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=290904","title":{"rendered":"Net Zero Requires New High-Voltage Power Lines to be Wrapped Around the Earth 2,000 Times Within 17 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0CHRIS MORRISON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieving Net Zero means building 80 million kilometres of new and refurbished power lines within 17 years, equivalent to wrapping the Earth 2,000 times with new electricity grid capacity. All the high voltage lines built in the last century will need to be built again by 2040 to benefit from all the intermittent power produced by the vast number of wind turbines. The ecological costs of all this can only be guessed at. Electricity cables are made of aluminium and copper and strung on giant pylons made of steel and supported by large concrete bases. For their part, wind turbines are a menace to both avian and oceanic wildlife<\/a>, consume vast quantities of raw materials, have a limited lifespan and are an increasing blight on both inland and offshore landscapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the International Energy Agency (IEA) gets its way, you ain\u2019t seen nothing yet. The roll-out of high voltage lines will be on an unprecedented scale. In a report on global electricity grids issued to coincide with COP28<\/a>, the IEA states that \u201can unprecedented level of attention from policymakers and business leaders is needed to ensure grids support clean energy transitions and maintain electricity security\u201d. Major changes in how grids operate and are regulated are said to be essential. Annual investment in grids, which has remained broadly stagnant, needs to double to more than $600 billion a year by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Australian science journalist Jo Nova is in no mood to be understanding<\/a>: \u201cRemember, it\u2019s not their fault that renewables need far more land, more space, more backup and more infrastructure \u2013 it\u2019s our fault we didn\u2019t build a world ready for their holy energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IEA paints a world where electricity grids are becoming a \u201cbottleneck\u201d for transitions to Net Zero emissions. While investment in renewables has been increasing rapidly, global investment in grids \u201chas barely changed\u201d. In Europe, policymakers can speed up progress on grids by \u201cenhancing planning, ensuring regulatory risk assessments allow for anticipatory investment, and streamlining administrative processes\u201d. In plain English this means ripping up local planning laws in over-populated Britain and blanketing the country with millions of giant electricity pylons. These will be required to bring energy to urban areas from power intermittently generated far away in the North Sea and off the Scottish coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is perhaps no coincidence that the British Government recently set out \u201cmajor plans\u201d to speed up connections and rapidly increase capacity on the electricity grid. The press release cunningly linked it with a \u00a3960 million government investment in \u201cgreen industries\u201d. The new package is \u201cexpected\u201d to bring forward \u00a390 billion of investment over the next 10 years. The Government promised that it will \u201creward\u201d those living closest to new infrastructure with up to \u00a31,000 a year off their electricity bills. In another part of the release, this is downgraded to communities \u201ccould\u201d benefit, and the bung is limited to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the money is spent on, it is likely to be chickenfeed compared with the growing \u00a312 billion annual subsidy paid by electricity consumers to the producers of renewable energy. But the next British government will face an empty exchequer and soaring state debt. Lack of finance along with the end of low interest rates and free money printing is likely to kill many of the green fantasises currently being peddled by collectivist Net Zero fanatics. It is becoming clearer by the day, to an increasing number of people, that renewable energy is unreliable and uneconomic, and has an insatiable requirement for financial subsidy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emeritus Cambridge Professor Michael Kelly has long been a critic of the blind, un-costed rush to Net Zero. The U.K. electricity grid will require upgrading from top to bottom, he wrote in a recent GWPF essay<\/a>. Leaving aside the massive roll out of long-distance transmission lines required, he noted the inadequacies of all the local cabling and sub-stations built before the need to charge electric cars and run heat pumps. \u201cThe whole distribution system will need to be upgraded\u2026 the work will be extraordinarily expensive, but without it there will either be regular brownouts, or drivers will be told where and when they can charge their batteries,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Kelly believes it is a failure of the British political machinery, notably the work of the unelected Climate Change Committee. \u201cWe have set out to decarbonise the economy without anyone having thought through all the engineering issues, let alone put a cost on the exercise,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as Jo Nova observes, it is all our fault. \u201cApparently, we should have paid attention and built the right grid and now due to our laziness we will have to rush in another 80 million kilometres of interconnectors, just like that,\u201d she writes Tell the children they\u2019ve been lied to, she concludes. \u201cThe Green future is an industrial wasteland of concrete and steel built to line the pockets of billionaires and bankers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Morrison is the\u00a0<\/em>Daily Sceptic\u2019s Environment Editor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Achieving Net Zero means building 80 million kilometres of new and refurbished power lines within 17 years, equivalent to wrapping the Earth 2,000 times with new electricity grid capacity. All the high voltage lines built in the last century will need to be built again by 2040 to benefit from all the intermittent power produced by the vast number of wind turbines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":290907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Achieving Net Zero means building 80 million kilometres of new and refurbished power lines within 17 years, equivalent to wrapping the Earth 2,000 times with new electricity grid capacity. 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