The ongoing transition from baseload power generation to weather-dependent sources of electricity has proven quite challenging due to this dependence. Now, a team of scientists says the challenges are not insurmountable. We just need to build a globally interconnected system of wind and solar.

It sounds like a huge undertaking fraught with its own challenges, and indeed it is. For the time being, then, the idea is only theoretical, with the scientists claiming it would result in energy abundance for every part of the world, thanks to the planet’s huge wind and solar resources that we have yet to harness in an optimal way.

“Theoretically, the potential of solar and wind resources on Earth vastly surpasses human demand,” the team, comprising researchers from China, Denmark, and the United States, said. Yet the way we are currently using these resources is rather fragmentary and sub-optimal. A global interconnected system built on wind and solar as sources of electricity, on the other hand, would ensure a consistent supply everywhere, the paper argued. So, essentially, the researchers are proposing a sort of a real-life version of the centralized global governments from the world of science fiction. Instead of a government, however, it’s a centralized, coordinated global grid.

Related: Spain’s 2025 Blackout and the Real Lessons for Renewable Grids

In the simplest terms, the central argument of the team comes down to the fact that there is always wind blowing somewhere in the world and, equally, somewhere it’s daytime and the sun is shining. With separate grids, neither the wind nor the sun can be made to work to their full potential. With a centralized grid, on the other hand, we can send wind-generated power half across national borders to where it is needed. The idea is basically a global version of what the UK is trying to do with its own grid, bringing wind power from Scotland to southern England where the demand is highest.

Theoretically, it’s simple. Practically, however, it is not. First, a whole new grid would need to be built, featuring ultra-high-voltage transmission lines to carry the electricity over vast distances without equally vast losses along the way. That new grid would also need even more wind and solar, and we’re talking utility-scale, not rooftop. All this costs a pretty penny—so pretty indeed that Europe, which is a wealthy place, is having trouble upgrading its grid for the wind and solar it already has, and we are not talking about UHV lines, we are talking normal transmission lines.

So, cost is definitely one problem with the researchers’ idea, even though they claim that the global, centralised grid would save money eventually. It would also require building less wind and solar capacity than a fragmentary system. Upfront, however, it would require investments of $117 trillion, according to the team, led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Many areas – such as North Africa’s deserts, Central Asia’s steppes, Patagonia’s windswept plains and Western Australia’s sun-rich territories – have world-class solar and wind resources but low local demand,” one of the authors, Yao Ling, told the South China Morning Post. “A global solar-wind system would significantly incentivise the development of renewable energy in such regions.”

One might reasonably argue that such a system would eventually morph into that sci-fi style global government because, once again, it would need to be coordinated globally. And this is where the insurmountable differences come. Politics, geopolitics, national interests, and differing priorities between national governments all make the idea of the researchers rather unrealistic, at least at this point in time. The chances of that changing anytime soon are slim to none. It may be for the best, too.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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