Ocean Electricity Grid. How do they do that?

Pylons are ugly and nobody likes them! Filling up our countryside with thousands more of them to facilitate a massive electricity grid expansion is proving to be a very tricky challenge with lots of local opposition. But what if you could build your electricity grid out at sea and just bring cables to shore where they’re needed?

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Reference links

China’s MILLION VOLT Energy Superhighway

UK Holistic Network Design

UK Offshore Transmission Network Review

The Great UK Grid Upgrade

UK Emission reduction

Hornsea Wind Farms

Michael Barnard on the Future of HVDC transmission

Check out other YouTube Climate Communicators

[howtoappearincompletely]

I enjoy your sarcastic humour. I also like the nice, darker, soothing living-room–wall colour.

[mikeharrison]

The grid needs to be constructed, owned and operated by the government on behalf of all the people of the UK. Asking competitors to sort it out is like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

[SheepShearerMike]

Thanks for letting us know about the talks on your Patrion, they were very informative. Let's hope Everything Electric release all the others.

[jamespierce]

You are getting really good at keeping a straight face when you let out a real zinger.

[john-frankscott]

What's worth mentioning is the excessive differences between Scotland providing large sums of the UK's generation and England containing the majority of demand centres. All offshore cables to be built East of Scotland down to England are to alleviate the issues with the constrained and near-bust B6 boundary overhead lines. I'm currently involved in proposing and designing new overhead line routes between Scotland and England, the amount of infrastructure to be established in the next few years will be some of the largest projects the UK has seen in years!

[erictheblue]

I really enjoy listening to Dave talk on whatever green topic is on. With his smooth, sophisticated voice he could call me a complete idiot and I would reply "thank you" and ask for more! 😁

[MrTwistoff]

Great sarcastic wit! Perfect finish...what could go wrong 😂

[guanxi]

My really favorite quote „If you don’t like lt I am fine too. I won’t paint it again!“. That’s the principled Dave who we love! And for the records: I like your new painting! :-)

[johnrdoe]

Love the humour in the teeth of this oncoming situation.

[jorgevieiro]

Another possibility, not sure if it was explored in the UK, is to upgrade the existing transmission cables (you did a video on re-conducting). There is GETs (Grid Enhancing Technologies) which can add 20-30% capacity. Re-conducting that can give 2-3x capacity. Moving to HVDC that can give 4x. The good part of these technologies is that it does not require new right-of-way.

[robertdavidson]

I didn't notice the paint as I was mesmerized by your sparkling oratory!!! Keep up the great content as I tune into you each Sunday.

[TheSimChannel]

The new color is a very good choice. Blue/orange contrast looks good, and you stand out better from the background. Good one!

[jimhood]

Thanks Dave. Positive actions are what we like to see. Onward and upward!

[alanhat]

i grew up near Tilbury & the sky is full of wires, both the ones from the (now flattened) power station & the ones crossing the Thames & fanning out in all directions from the shore. The 330KV lines are fun though, humming & crackling in damp weather.

[WhatzTyme]

New paint job much mo' betta! Well done you

[stephengreen]

Really well paced and witty delivery. If I hadn't already subscribed, I would be subscribing. Thanks for informing us about Norfolk and Lincolnshire getting the disruption but not the electricity.

[johnsamsungs]

It helps a lot of the power grid is owned by the people, your government! If your politicians say they are going to sell your hardware tell them NO! I still own my power and water infrastructure through my state government. That is why we only loose power if a tree falls through the wires in a storm. We did loose the water once for about a hour as when they were working on the pipes in our street a stopcock broke. It was very old and they didn't have a spare in the truck because they don't usually break. Got to love being able to vote out a government that wants to sell the people's stuff to their mates.

[anderskarlsson]

Happy everytime a new of "Just have a think" episode is released. And there he is. Thank you.

[CitiesForTheFuture]

Tx for another great energy video topic. It seems getting electrons from point A to point Z is very complicated & complex indeed...

It would be helpful if we could convert existing power stations to renewable energy sources to take advantage of existing infrastructure. I have seen another suggestion that any new transmission & distribution infrastructure should be located along existing transport routes to avoid having to lease land from private owners etc. I'm more of a fan of interconnected distributed mini grids - especially in cities - so that energy is generated as close to consumers as possible. The great advantage of offshore wind though, is that it is less intermittent and is less obtrusive than onshore wind... it's complicated

[matthewbrown]

I love this channel but I’ve ‘JUST HAD A THINK’ and remembered that the generators in wind turbines do not transfer electrons through the wires as Dave described but rather it’s electrical ENERGY that is transferred - NOT electrons - indeed for AC generation the electrons don’t actually flow anywhere, they just vibrate.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs and not the key point of this excellent video but I’ve heard Dave say this several times before.