I swoop in on something like this looking for the first obvious error in units/arithmetic/materials that renders the whole thing ludicrous, but the author has a spreadsheet and it looks like the units are about right. It's an absurdly cheap cable in terms of materials to transmit 10 GW across an ocean. The main things that render it dubious as a practical matter:
- I don't know if operating at 14 million volts is achievable in terms of converter stations. Today's highest voltage HVDC projects operate at 1.1 megavolts and it took years of development to get there from 0.6 megavolts.
- The mechanical practicality of thousands of kilometers of silica clad aluminum. There's a big mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion and silica is brittle.
Still, this appears to be facially valid in scientific terms if not in engineering terms. That's impressive! It's a really thin intercontinental cable carrying a lot of power.
The whole thing reminded me of this discussion here from 3 years ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31971039
It has rough numbers for a globe-spanning HVDC cable on the order of a meter in diameter (assumes voltages more like present day commercial HVDC, much thicker conductor to compensate).
- I don't know if operating at 14 million volts is achievable in terms of converter stations. Today's highest voltage HVDC projects operate at 1.1 megavolts and it took years of development to get there from 0.6 megavolts.
- The mechanical practicality of thousands of kilometers of silica clad aluminum. There's a big mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion and silica is brittle.
Still, this appears to be facially valid in scientific terms if not in engineering terms. That's impressive! It's a really thin intercontinental cable carrying a lot of power.
The whole thing reminded me of this discussion here from 3 years ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31971039
It has rough numbers for a globe-spanning HVDC cable on the order of a meter in diameter (assumes voltages more like present day commercial HVDC, much thicker conductor to compensate).