←back to thread

45 points hackandthink | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.415s | source
1. kibwen ◴[] No.42166047[source]
The dymaxion projection is my favorite map projection, and I love the idea of more resilient energy grids (and solar panels, while we're at it). But the problem here is that the dymaxion projection turns out to be terribly misleading in this context. By relying on the dymaxion projection alone it makes it seem inevitable that you'd have to have to traverse the bottleneck of the Bering Strait, but in the realm of what is both practical and achievable it makes absolutely no sense to make that the lynchpin of a global grid. Presumably the idea is that when the western hemisphere is lit it would be sending power to the eastern hemisphere (and vice versa), but, no, you're not going to be building a global backbone capable of powering half the world at a time across five thousand miles of near-uninhabited wilderness. You need infrastructure that pays for itself by connecting geographically-proximal, densely-inhabited population centers. And that might very well mean that it's more realistic to run a cable between (for example) Boston and Ireland, which is not apparent from looking at the dymaxion projection.
replies(1): >>42166114 #
2. ricardo81 ◴[] No.42166114[source]
Yes, the geopolitics puts a major brake on the idea. Perhaps this is why some are looking towards space-based solar. I'd be happy if either became economical and feasible. I'd sooner place my bet on storage, whether it be batteries and/or stored entirely chemically via hydrogen, ammonia etc- particularly in places where geography limits hydro or anywhere off-grid.