Clark Gellings"Let's Build a Global Power Grid" Outstanding proposal from Clark Gellings, a Fellow at the Electric Power Research Institute and an IEEE Life Fellow. This is his second article for IEEE Spectrum. His first, published in 1981, introduced the idea of demand-side management—a now common smart-grid practice that allows electricity customers to manage their own usage. “People thought it was heretical, but the idea eventually took hold,” he says. “I hope that happens with this, too.”

TerraWatts
New Power for the Planet

 
earth 3 There is a new world wide web emerging right before our eyes.

It is a global energy network and, like the internet, it will change our culture, society and how we do business.  More importantly, it will alter how we use, transform and exchange energy.
STELLAR SOLAR -- STELLARSOLAR.NET
Enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year.

There is no energy supply problem, there is an energy distribution problem -- and the emerging solution is a new world wide web of electricity.

     Chinese Version 中 文

Summary: "New World Wide Web -- Key to Fighting Climate Change"

The articles, reports and presentations listed below describe
the emergence of this new global energy network
and are organized into several sections:

  • recent presentations by the author
  • resources supplied by Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) and
    • background on current Smart Grid efforts, which are integral to transforming the global energy network.
    These articles document changes in the electric utility industry,  the deployment of solar energy and other renewable energy resources, which are helping to fuel dramatic shifts in the market for decentralized electricity.


  • World Economic Forum - Energy Strategy Meeting, May 10, 2007
  • Speaker Notes
  • Global Energy Grid Slides
  • Biographical Notes - Michael Powers

  • Stanford University Energy Conference, March 3, 2007
  • Stanford University Presentation on Global Energy Network 
  • News Release: "New World Wide Web" Key to Fighting Climate Change says expert

  • Global Energy Network Institute
  • From Scarcity to Abundance: A World That Works for Everyone  
  • Making the World Work for 100% of Humanity: Responding to 9/11
  • GENI: The Global Energy Network Institute
  • Spontaneous Cooperation: Overview of Interconnection Projects Now Underway
  • Global Energy Futures and Human Development: A Framework for Analysis (.pdf)
  • My Endorsement of the Global Energy Grid by Walter Cronkite
  • "There is no energy crisis; there is a crisis of ignorance" (GENI video) 
  • Electricity in Africa: the Dark Continent Economist.com
  • Global Energy Grid
  • Discussions on Smart Grid & Transmission Backbone Issues
  • NREL Regional Transmission Grid Interconnection Seams Study (July 2018) 
  • Time to Upgrade America's 19th Century Electric Grid (June 2018) 
  • EU JRC Report on Europe-China HVDC Transmission Link  (Dec 2017)
  • Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) White Paper (Feb 2017)
  • GEI Worldwide Conference Schedule for 2017 
  • Summary of News Coverage on China's Global Energy Grid (Mar-Apr 2016) 
  • Connecting the Americas 2022 Initiative (Oct. 2012 - US State Dept)
  • China's Vision of a Global Energy Grid: "A Grid to Knit Together the World"   (2016)
  • Supergrid -- Report on integrating renewable energy in Europe and N. Aftrica (2016)
  • Future cost-competitive electricity systems, CO2 Impact (2016)
  • "Let's Build a Global Power Grid" - Clark Gelling, IEEE Spectrum (2015)
  • Roadmap for Re-Powering California with Wind, Water & Sunlight  (.pdf - 2014)
  • Rocky Mountain Institute: New business models for electric utility industry  (.pdf - 2013)
  • "Utilities Unbundled" (.pdf document from EY.com - 2013)
  • Tres Amigas Superstation Project (Clovis, NM) 
  • Phillip Harris video on the Tres Amigas Project (IIEA 2010)
  • FERC Presentation on Tres Amigas Project (Manz, June 26,2013)
  • Short promo video on Tres Amigas Project
  • MISO Presentation on Midwest HVDC Network Concept (Jan 7, 2014)
  • Energy, Matter & Money
  • Underground HVDC Supergrid Can Work in Europe (Faulkner, March 2014-.pdf)
  • Asian Supergrid Gains Key Political and Business Support (Jan.31,2014)
  • The European Supergrid and the Blue Growth Strategy (.pdf - Malta 2013)
  • Electricity Transmission & Impact on the Renewable Energy Market (.pdf - WRI, May 2011)
  • Superconducting Cable Technology for Renewable Energy Transmission (.pdf - WIREC 2008)
  • Solutions for Smart and Super Grids with HVDC and FACTS (IEEMA Journal, June 2009)
  • Enabling Renewable Energy with a Robust Grid (.pdf - WIREC 2008)
  • WIRES: Working Group for Investment in Reliable and Economic Electric Systems
  • National Perspective: Allocating the Costs of New Transmission Investment(.pdf) (2007)
  • Integration of Renewable Resources California ISO Report (.pdf) (Nov. 2007)
  • SuperPower plans for amazing future (superconductivity) Albany Times Union, March 4, 2007
  • Powering Up the Smart Grid A Special Report from Climate Solutions, July 2005
  • UN Report: Multi-Dimensional Issues in Int'l. Electric Power Grid Interconnections (2005)
  • Transmission: The Critical Link National Grid White Paper (.pdf) (2005)
  • "Plugging in the Consumer" - IBM Report on Innovating Utility Business Models for the Future
  • 2007 IBM Consumer Survey on Energy Expectation
  • Decoupling Policies: Options to Encourage Energy Efficiency Policies for Utilities (2010)
  • Remote Net Metering and Other Pollicies for High Energy Users (2011)
  • Jeremy Rifkin RSA presentation (video) on distributed energy (Mar. 2010) 
  • Green Power Superhighways (SEIA Report - Jan. 2009)
  • 100% Renewable Electricity -- A roadmap to 2050 for Europe and N. Africa (Mar. 2010)
  • The Electricity Economy - New Opportunities from Transformation of the Electric Power Sector (Aug. 2008)
  • Smart Lines: Transmission for the Renewable Energy Economy (.pdf)
  • The Emerging Electranet
  • Bob Metcalfe's "Enernet" presentation (July, 2009)
  • Bob Metcalfe "Enernet" Interview (Feb 2011, SXSW)
  • Galvin Electricity Initiative
  • Global Smart Energy
  • Smart Grid Newsletter
  • GridWise Alliance
  • Conference Report, Super Grids 1 and 2, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Microgrids as peer-to-peer energy BBC, 2005
  • Transforming the Electric Infrastructure by Clark Gellings and Kurt Yeager, 2004
  • Followup: Transforming the Electric Infrastructure Physics Today, 2004
  • Building Tomorrow's Supergrid EnergyBiz Magazine, Sept 2006
  • A Power Grid for the Hydrogen Economy Scientific American, June 2006
  • A Supergrid for Europe MIT Technology Review, 2006
  • Building a Smarter Power Grid Technology Review, 2001
  • The Energy Web: Reinventing the Electrical Grid for the 21st Century Wired Magazine, 2001
  • High -Temperature Superconducting Transmission Lines: An Overview

  • Global Energy Grids and Electric Utilities Around the World
  • Blockchain in the Energy Transition: A Survey Report (.pdf) (2016)
  • EY Report: Digital Grid - Powering the Future of Utilities (.pdf) (2016)
  • DESERTEC Project: Clean Power from Deserts (White Paper)
  • DESERTEC Project Video
  • GRENATEC - Pan Asian Supergrid Video
  • Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC)
  • TREC UK
  •  Friends of the Supergrid
  • BritNed – Europe’s link for the future
  • Russia Plans World's Largest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska Bloomberg.com
  • Gov. Walter Hickel's Report to Bering Strait Tunnel Conference Moscow, April 2007
  • Bering Strait Tunnel Project
  • AEP Interstate Vision: Transmission Backbone for Integration of Wind Energy
  • Future Global Energy Prosperity: The Terawatt Challenge Richard E. Smalley
  • Global Power: The Electric Hypergrid New Scientist Magazine, 1995
  • Global electric ‘power highways’ could become a force for peace
  • People Power: Big Power Plants on the Way Out   New Scientist Magazine, 2001
  • "Why War? Why Not Big Projects?" Walter Hickel's Address to UN NGO Conference
  • The Baltic Ring: a Common Electricity Market in the Baltic Sea Region
  • The East-West Energy Bridge: Pacific Rim Intertie
  • Electric Utilities: A Changing Industry, An Instrument of Change
  • A Message in a Bottle... to Google Executives (2007)
  • Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs"
  • Our Children, Climate, Faith Symposium (2013)
  • A World That Works for Everyone - (2018)

  • Solar Power on a Global Level
  • RFK, Jr Keynote Speech at Solar Power International, 2009
  • Solar Thermal Electricity as the Primary Replacement for Coal and Oil in U.S. (.pdf - 2008)
  • Solar Thermal as the Plausible Basis for Grid Supply (.pdf - 2007)
  • Solar Electric Home Energy Systems: A Typical Installation
  • Solar Electric Home: Live Readings from Operating System (Enphase Microinverter)
  • Solar Electric Home: Live Readings from Opererating System (SunPower Monitor)
  • "People Power - The End of Big Generators"
  • How Much PV Area Needed to Equal U.S.Electricity Production?
  • San Diego Solar Power, San Diego Solar Panels, San Diego Solar Energy
  • TerraWatts News Link Pages
  •  

    1 Terawatt = 1 trillion watts
    10 TWh = average daily power consumption of the U.S. (2014)
    18 TWh = average daily power consumption of the world (2013)
    173,000 TW = average daily supply of energy to Planet Earth (2011)

    Every day, Earth receives
    10,000 times as much energy
    as civilization uses.



    "The electrical system supporting life on planet Earth is analogous to computer technology circa 1980... dominated by mainframes, with PC's barely on the horizon and only a rudimentary network in place.

    The next World Wide Web will be a Global Energy Grid
    -- and it will transform everything.

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