this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
0 points (NaN% liked)

Technology

59605 readers
3345 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

World’s largest electric cable close to power, could light 1.4 million homes | A high voltage direct current cable will connect UK homes with fresh green energy from the wind farms of Denmark.::undefined

top 4 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bratosch@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's gonna push DC from DK to UK? Seems ineffective?

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Why do you think so? HVDC cables are not unusual nowadays, and in fact excel both in economic and technical terms over long distance.

https://www.electricaldeck.com/2021/08/comparison-between-hvdc-and-hvac-transmission-system.html

This cable length is 765km, but in the Canadian province of Manitoba we have a 900 km transmission line built 50 years ago and still running strong for the most part.

[–] bratosch@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Huh. I've just always heard that AC is the better way for long distances. TIL

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 1 points 11 months ago

AC is typically used for power grids because it's very easy to change voltage with a transformer. You can have 100-200V in households, and use a cheap transformer to step up the voltage to 100+kV to reduce resistive losses for long distances.

AC works well, but there are technically some downsides with AC, like the skin effect and parasitic capacitance. With modern technology, it's pretty easy to step up/down DC voltage, and by using it for the biggest, longest power lines, you see some nice power savings for the effort. It's called "HVDC".