Global Grids: How to Upgrade the World’s Biggest Machine
“I think the challenge is many markets are doing it simultaneously. And so that’s going to put a constraint on resources, both people and parts and metals,” the National Grid’s Sanjeet Sanghera says on this week’s Zero.
Power transmission lines near Austin, Texas.
Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/BloombergAs the world weans itself from fossil fuels, electricity grids will feel extra strain. Recent analysis from BloombergNEF concluded that to meet the growing demand for electricity, the planet will need to nearly double its grid network to 111 million kilometers — a distance almost three quarters of the way to the sun — by 2050.
Grids, which bring electricity seamlessly into our homes, can be easily taken for granted. But upgrading and expanding these vastly complex systems will require enormous investment, technical skills and political acumen.