Breaking the Energy Gridlock
For all the huge investments in renewable energy generation, the race to
achieve net zero emissions actually depends on something else: cables.
By 2050, the world needs to construct an electricity grid of more than 152
million kilometers, the same distance as from Earth to the Sun, according
to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
So far, we’ve only built around 75 million kilometers, and it’s already
causing massive blockages. There are almost 1,000 gigawatts of solar
generation projects ready to be connected in the United States and
Europe, with no grid to transport the power they can produce. There’s a
further 500 GW of wind power languishing unused, five times the amount
that was built in 2022.
Although the US Inflation Reduction Act has gone some way to address the
problem, contributing to an extra $29 billion in funding for grid expansion,
which should encourage another $45 billion from industry and other
sources, it still falls way short of climate targets.
BNEF argues that, globally, there needs to be a $21 trillion investment in
electricity grid development (reaching $1 trillion per year) up to 2050 if
we are to reach net zero, a huge increase on the $274 billion spent in
2022.
In the UK alone, the National Grid’s Electricity Systems Operator (ESO)
reckons it needs a £112 billion investment in upgrades between now and
2035, including 7,000 kilometers of undersea cables and 1,600 kilometers
of power lines including pylons.
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Along the way, governments will have to overcome the ‘not in my
backyard’ resistance of communities opposing electricity pylons, or else
spend more for underground (as much as four times as expensive) and
submarine (even more expensive) cables.
BNEF estimates that electricity grids will soon become the largest
consumers of copper, demanding 427 million metric tons of the metal by
2050, far more than is consumed by wind turbines, solar panels, energy
storage systems or electric vehicles. The same applies to aluminium, with
demand rocketing from around 10 million metric tons today to 30 million
metric tons in 2050.
“Great Britain is about to embark upon the biggest change to the
electricity network since the high voltage transmission grid was
established back in the 1940s,” said the ESO, as electric cars proliferate
on the roads and electricity replaces gas for heating homes and for
cooking.
It will take a giant and sustained effort to rewire the world’s energy
networks, but it’s the most important environmental challenge of our
lifetimes.
Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency
ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament.
Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses
in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from