Why is China Dominating Ultra High Voltage DC?

Want to restore the planet's ecosystems and see your impact in monthly videos? The first 500 people to join Planet Wild with my code will get the first month for free at https://planetwild.com/engineeringwit...

If you want to get to know them better first, check out their latest video:
Transforming the land under power lines into thriving ecosystems: https://planetwild.com/engineeringwit...

Can we use the afternoon sun in Perth to power the evening in Sydney? Imagine harnessing sunlight from thousands of kilometers away to power our cities at peak times. In today's video, we explore the groundbreaking energy technology that can do just that. Ultra High Voltage Direct Current, or UHVDC is reshaping how power is transmitted over vast distances. As countries globally seek efficient renewable energy solutions, China leads the charge in this technology, successfully employing UHVDC to link its hydro, solar and wind-rich western regions with densely populated eastern cities.

This success prompts a critical question: Why haven’t countries like the USA or Australia, with seemingly similar geographies, adopted UHVDC? Consider the potential—what if UHVDC could link Western Australia's abundant solar resources to the main Australian grid? This could allow Sydney at 5 PM to use solar power generated at 3 PM in Perth. Or in the USA it could be California’s 2PM sunshine powering New York’s 5PM, or transporting wind from the lightly populated mid west to the cities. The implications of such a capability are profound and could revolutionize energy use across time zones.

Why is UHVDC not more widespread? To answer this questions, we're going to examine how elevating from traditional HVDC to UHVDC allows longer distance and more efficient energy transmission. We'll also look into how much UHVDC has been installed in China, compare it with installations elsewhere, and discuss what future plans may hold. We'll dive into the technological specifics, understand its advantages, and confront the formidable challenges that have curtailed its broader adoption. Stay tuned as we explore why this transformative technology, while a game-changer in China, is still on the sidelines elsewhere.

If you would like to help develop the Engineering with Rosie channel, you could consider joining the Patreon community, where there is a chat community (and Patreon-only Discord server) about topics covered in the videos and suggestions for future videos and production quality improvements.   / engineeringwithrosie  

Or for a one-off contribution you can support by buying a coffee ☕️ here —
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/engwithr...

Follow us for more short videos:
  / engwithrosie  
  / engineeringwithrosie  

Bookmarks:
00:00 Intro
01:42 HVDC vs UHVDC
02:47 UHVDC links in China
04:05 Projects outside China
05:15 Why aren’t there many UHVDC outside of China?
07:09 Why is China leading with UHVDC?
07:35 Can we have UHVDC link in Australia?
08:56 Will we see UHVDC links crisscrossing the planet soon?
09:15 Outro

Sources:
For data, images & graphs
http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0622/c900...
https://web.archive.org/web/201807300...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-h...
https://www.electricnet.com/doc/china...
https://www.mhi.ca/news-events/news/25
https://www.hitachienergy.com/uk-ie/e...
https://www.hitachienergy.com/uk-ie/e...
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/proj....
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/proj...
https://www.hitachienergy.com/in/en/a...
https://www.hitachienergy.com/uk-ie/e...
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/proj...
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get...

Reports and Scientific Papers
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu...
https://climate-laws.org/documents/14...
https://iea-etsap.org/E-TechDS/PDF/E1...

The Engineering with Rosie team is:
Rosemary Barnes: Presenter, producer, writer
Javi Diez: Editor   / javierdiezsuarez  
Fatini Nur: Research and production assistant   / fatinin