In his recent role as Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition in the White House Office of Science and Technology, Costa Samaras helped roadmap the cleantech future laid out by Democrats’ legislative achievements. In this episode, he reflects on his experience and offers a clear-eyed view of where climate policy needs to go next.
Costa Samaras mentioned reconductoring and this was an earlier (2023) podcast topic. All we have to do is replace the heavy steel that is in our transmission lines to weight them down, with carbon fiber, which is much lighter and 5 times stronger than steel. We would then have a higher cross section of the conductive aluminum to give over twice the amps as we presently have. With this reconductoring we would have twice the power in these power lines without building new power lines.
Yes. I found the earlier podcasts on grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and reconductoring particularly interesting. I would expect any action to be somehow mandated by PUCs?
Yes, I agree, it has to be mandated by the PUC or the state governments because it is for sure that the utilities will not do it due to their opposition to the clean energy progress.
Did somebody say state capacity at commissions? DOE is already on it! (I'm on a DOE funded fellowship at a PUC and there are another couple dozen of us all over as a workforce development program)
It's interesting that grid batteries are coming on strong. I'd feel better if we were doing better improving at adding solar and wind. As far as R&D, this just reinforces my feeling that US R&D is far too influenced by the Silicon Valley VC culture. Lots of fusion, not much offshore wind. I mean, the offshore wind tech proposed for Maine could never get even a medium scale test here, and went to Scotland. Their own university couldn't even get a pilot going.
Currently, it seems the PUCs are the ones slowing down a lot of T&D improvements. And these RTOs are slowing down effective use and improvement of transmission. While the tech bros flood the media with pleas for their beloved nukes.
Costa Samaras mentioned reconductoring and this was an earlier (2023) podcast topic. All we have to do is replace the heavy steel that is in our transmission lines to weight them down, with carbon fiber, which is much lighter and 5 times stronger than steel. We would then have a higher cross section of the conductive aluminum to give over twice the amps as we presently have. With this reconductoring we would have twice the power in these power lines without building new power lines.
Yes. I found the earlier podcasts on grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and reconductoring particularly interesting. I would expect any action to be somehow mandated by PUCs?
https://www.volts.wtf/p/one-easy-way-to-boost-the-grid-upgrade
https://www.volts.wtf/p/getting-more-out-of-the-grid-weve
Yes, I agree, it has to be mandated by the PUC or the state governments because it is for sure that the utilities will not do it due to their opposition to the clean energy progress.
Did somebody say state capacity at commissions? DOE is already on it! (I'm on a DOE funded fellowship at a PUC and there are another couple dozen of us all over as a workforce development program)
Hey, very cool!
It's interesting that grid batteries are coming on strong. I'd feel better if we were doing better improving at adding solar and wind. As far as R&D, this just reinforces my feeling that US R&D is far too influenced by the Silicon Valley VC culture. Lots of fusion, not much offshore wind. I mean, the offshore wind tech proposed for Maine could never get even a medium scale test here, and went to Scotland. Their own university couldn't even get a pilot going.
Currently, it seems the PUCs are the ones slowing down a lot of T&D improvements. And these RTOs are slowing down effective use and improvement of transmission. While the tech bros flood the media with pleas for their beloved nukes.