Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Rethinking the Future of Sustainability: The Power of a Global Super Grid

Renewable Energy World: Our forebearers have been integrating the electricity and extending the electric supply grid ever since the installation of the first public lighting by the Godalming Borough Lighting Committee in 1881 shortly followed by the first demonstration facility of transmission of direct current electrical energy by Miesbach-Munich Power Transmission in 1882 over a 57-km distance.

In 1938, Buckminster Fuller envisioned a global electrical energy grid that would allow the integration of renewable resources located in different locations to meet the energy needs of the world. In 1960, Buckminster saw that the energy needs could be transferred cost effectively at a distance of about 1,500 miles. In the traditional Dymaxion Map in folded form, he showed the world to be one huge island contained in one world ocean. In his view, an electric grid that connected everybody would alleviate international disputes and the new economic basis wouldn’t be gold or dollars, but rather kilowatt-hours. In the late 1950s, the Gotland HVDC project was a first, and saw the deployment of a 90-km submarine cable transporting 20 MW. Over time, HVDC technology has improved, and now it is used for interconnecting power grids.

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