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These images have been chosen for their uniqueness. Subject matter ranges from
historic events, to really cool phenomena in science and engineering, to relevant
place, to ingenious contraptions, to interesting products (which now has its own
dedicated Featured Product
category).
Changji-Guquan UHV DC Transmission Link in Anhui Province, China
Photo: Imaginechina / Alamy
When up in a small airplane or helicopter, I have never had any sense of fear
of heights, but when at the top edge of a really tall building or at the precipice
of a high cliff, the need to control the panic sensation is required. It is not
strong enough to prevent me from going there, but I'm definitely not one of those
fearless types that will go anywhere with reckless abandon. Even seeing a photo
like this one on the
IEEE Spectrum website invokes the
fight or flight
emotion. You need to click on the thumbnail to see the larger version to really
get a sense of the height at which the technicians are working.
The story is about China's
Changji-Guquan ultrahigh-voltage direct-current transmission link along the
Yangtze River, in Anhui province. Arguments abound over whether DC or AC is better
overall for electrical distribution, but the main reason for this DC line is to
accommodate energy storage at locations throughout the country. As opposed to pumping
water back to the top of a dam or raising gigantic weights, huge banks of capacitors
and batteries can be used without AC-to-DC / DC-to-AC conversion to store excess
production for drawing upon during surge periods or to fill the gap when generation
is compromised due to a local failure. Recall that "The Current War" was fought
between pro-direct-current Thomas Edison and pro-alternating-current Nikola Tesla.
DC has the advantage of lower line losses while AC voltages can be efficiently stepped
up or down. Here is a very thorough list of the main
advantages
and disadvantages of AC and DC distribution systems (look down below the large
graphics).
Despite numerous multi-billion-dollar "Infrastructure
Packages" created by our self-serving politicians, the Chinese are rocketing
ahead of the United States in nearly all areas of technology. Only a very small
portion of the U.S. budget is actually spent on building and restoring roads, bridges,
airports, docks, railroads, dams, oil and gas pipelines, landfills, basic research,
and electrical distribution, while the vast majority goes to bailing out irresponsible
state and local governments, government employee pensions, and pet projects of big-dollar
donors.
At the same time, China is building a super-modern country whose infrastructure
vastly surpasses that of all others. They do have the advantage of having started
a few decades ago from a Stone Age existence where not much infrastructure was already
in place, so nearly everything is constructed from the newest technologies. That
wonderful system is essentially funded by the same people who are told they are
funding ours - Americans and other country's citizens who buy most of their products
from China.
Posted April 9, 2021
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