HVDC

The Sun Shines in South America: Colombia & Brazil Give Large Boost to Solar Deployment

South America has a lot of sun and a lot of space, and solar energy has grown from a small player to the main driver of generation growth in several countries in the region (making their already clean grids even cleaner). Today we look at the grids of Chile, Brazil, and Colombia, all of which have already made solar a cornerstone of their generation or are working to do so in the near future.

Photo courtesy of Energinet. Viking Link cable pulled ashore on the west coast of Jutland

Viking Link — World’s Longest HVDC Cable Connecting UK & Scandinavia Now Online

The world’s longest electricity cable connection, Viking Link, began pushing electrons from Denmark directly to the UK last week. The DKK 13 billion ($1.92 billion) investment has been almost 4 years in the making and is the first physical connection between the two otherwise completely separate energy systems. Viking Link … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic image of a rusting hydrogen pipeline that abruptly ends in mid-air, set against a vast, open landscape.

New Hydrogen Pipeline Vs HVDC Study Less Wrong, More Clearly Shows Hydrogen Uneconomic

For the past few years there’s been a sub-genre of studies trying to pretend that making hydrogen in one place and using pipelines to move it to other places is better than just moving the electrons using HVDC transmission. It’s the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies’ turn to get it … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALL-E generated panoramic illustration that visualizes the concept of maximizing pipeline value by incorporating High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission

Will Pipelines Be Repurposed For HVDC Transmission?

This question is asked regularly of me these days. After all, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) is the new pipeline, doesn’t care if it’s run underwater, underground or through a steel pipe, and the millions of kilometers of pipelines in the world are going to be decommissioned at an accelerating rate … [continued]

Block Island offshore wind farm. Credit :Ionna22 CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikipedia

How The US Can Become A Global Leader In Offshore Wind

Offshore wind offers advantages of greater capacity than solar energy, more stability than onshore wind power, and more importantly, decreases the need for fossil fuels and associated emissions of pollution and carbon dioxide. Countries such as China, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark are leading global offshore wind installation … [continued]

15 Wind Power Projects Get $27 Million From US DOE Wind Energy Technologies Office

DOE Wind Energy Technologies Office Selects 15 Projects Totaling $27 Million to Address Key Deployment Challenges for Offshore, Land-Based, and Distributed Wind In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) released a funding opportunity to lower costs and address barriers to deployment of wind … [continued]