HVDC does bring the losses down, but at a high cost in equipment.JimC wrote: If transmission losses on average are only 6 - 7 % in a large country like the US, then they are a relatively minor factor in terms of overall cost, even if we are looking at distances of one or two thousand km. It is also interesting that rEv seems to have been right in his earlier suggestion that high voltage DC transmission involves even lower loss rates; perhaps this could be part of my inland Oz nuclear program, which I will certainly undertake when I become dictator of Oz...
The losses might be only 6 - 7 % in the US, but losses are only one part of the cost. You have to spend a lot of money on the transmission infrastructure. Keeping losses low costs more in infrastructure . And the losses are kept as low as possible, by using the shortest route available.
I hope being dictator includes the power to order rain, as well, for the desert power stations.
It's a bit ironic that we are talking about transmitting power 1,000 km.
If you could go 1,000 km downwards or upwards, you could get all the free power you ever needed. But we are forced to go sideways. Thank you baby jesus
