optionsgirl

Investing in the Smart Grid

thanks for sharing your links and analysis.


On Jul 13 03:28 PM Road Runner wrote:

> C300man said, “One factor that is missing from the discussion is
> the cost and energy required to transmit electrical energy long distances.
> That is the reason generation facilities need to be located as close
> as practical to where the energy is used. Otherwise much energy is
> lost in the long-distance transmission.”.
>
> This is not accurate. HVDC (high voltage direct current) transmission
> lines are very efficient over very long distance. They are an established
> technology in use today. As stated below, a cable of 360 miles can
> have a loss of only 4%.
>
> Here is a cut-and-paste of my post from another blog.
>
> The solution for moving the power of remote wind (and solar) farms
> to the cities is high voltage direct current (seekingalpha.com/symbo...)
> transmission. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . The established HVDC technology
> is more efficient than high voltage alternating current (seekingalpha.com/symbo...)
> at distances of over 600km (373 miles). This is because the HVDC
> transmission line cost is lower than HVAC, but the convertor (AC
> to DC) and inverter (DC to AC) costs of HVDC are high but fixed.
> However, the new HVDC Lite from ABB and HVDC Plus from Siemens has
> reduced this efficiency crossover distance dramatically by using
> advanced and cheaper electronics in the convertors and invertors.
>
>
> Another advantage of HVDC is the cables can be buried along highways.
> renewableenergywor... . Gone are the ugly towers and the “not
> in my backyard” problem.
>
> As noted in the article linked above, there is a HVDC line running
> today that carries electricity from Utah to Los Angeles, about 500
> miles. There is a proposal to extend it into southern Wyoming for
> wind farms.
>
> The NorNed HVDC link, an underwater power cable from Norway to the
> Netherlands, just came online in May of 2008, and is proving to be
> a big success.
>
> pepei.pennnet.com/disp...
>
> Here are some highlights about the cable.
>
> The NorNed HVDC link has a maximum capacity of 700 MW and an operating
> current of 824 A. It transfer cheap hydroelectric power from Norway
> to the Netherlands. The loss for the length of the cable is 4%. NorNed
> project is said to have cost in the region of €600 million ($760
> million), and took ten years of planning and a further three years
> of construction. At 580 km (360 miles), the NorNed link is the longest
> high-voltage submarine power transmission line in the world. The
> FMI cable has a novel design in that it comprises two independent
> cable cores made of braided copper stands, each rated 450 kV DC,
> placed side by side into a common steel wire armour.
>
> Here is a link that shows proposed HVDC links for Australia and southeast
> Asia.
> desertec-australia...
>
> The map of the planned Chinese HVDC links, desertec-australia...
> , is just another thing that scares me about China. China’s government
> is investing in the future is a very big way. Even their stimulus
> package was infrastructure oriented. Because of this, in my opinion,
> the size of their economy will catch up to the US in a much shorter
> period than forecast.
>
> Thus, there is a solution today for getting energy of remote wind
> and solar farms to where the energy is used.
>

Investing in the Smart Grid

I like ABB. Almost $5 Bil in cash, over 40% of sales in emerging markets, a new deal worth $170 million to provide Bahrain's Electricity and Water Authority with 11 electricity substations. ABB is well capitalized and profitable, with growth in emerging markets-that sounds good to me.