All about electricity pylons and transmission networks
Every inch of Shanghai real estate is valuable and that goes for the unused land beneath the pylons carrying the city's electricity. It's a no-go zone for housing, commercial use and manufacturing. It needn't be an eyesore and a junk yard.
Minhang District, mindful of real estate value, has created three public gardens in the 400,000 square meters under high-tension wires in the 3.5-square-kilometer Technological Development Zone. More details here.
The Pylons – Stephen Spender
The secret of these hills was stone, and cottages
Of that stone made,
And crumbling roads
That turned on sudden hidden villages.
Now over these small hills, they have built the concrete
That trails black wire;
Pylons, those pillars
Bare like nude giant girls that have no secret.
The valley with its gilt and evening look
And the green chestnut
Of customary root,
Are mocked dry like the parched bed of a brook.
But far above and far as sight endures
Like whips of anger
With lightning's danger
There runs the quick perspective of the future.
This dwarfs our emerald country by its trek
So tall with prophecy:
Dreaming of cities
Where often clouds shall lean their swan-white neck.
At last, another Pylon of the Month. This blog started after a website I used (with a heavy dash of irony) when teaching electricity. The old Pylon of the Month (pylonofthemonth.co.uk) stopped working and so I thought I would try to start a successor. After the first posting, it took a while for me to get around to using it more regularly. This pylon is on the outskirts of Ludgvan in Cornwall near St. Michaels Mount. If you go there, I strongly recommend a meal and a pint or two (of decent real ale) in the White Hart.
Bill Bryson has joined the debate about plans to put more pylons in the Snowdonia National Park and other Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty as reported in this Daily Telegraph article.
There are two issues here. Where electricity needs to be routed through a national park there is a strong case for buried cables. Although this is much more expensive, aesthetic considerations should surely win the day and the call for pylons that are 33% smaller is no bad thing. The second issue is reducing the need for as many pylons by encouraging more emphasis on local or microgeneration of electricity using renewable technology such as wind turbines and solar panels. This is the focus of the 'smart grid' recently backed by President Obama in the USA. It is difficult to argue with the idea, but it is making it happen that will be difficult. Persuading individuals and companies to invest significant sums for future gain is never easy, especially in the current economic climate.
According to this Guardian article, the cost of linking new wind turbines and nuclear power stations to the National Grid will be about £4.7bn. The National Grid themselves quote a figure of £9bn for the cost of changes to the network. More on this story here from businessGreen and the Daily Telegraph.
This Pylon is between the village of Kennington and the River Thames near Oxford.
Pylon of the Month 