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[Marks DTM Calib]

Yes but, there is a further issue.

By burying the cables you are effectively creating a hugely capacitive cable (as its surrounded by the electrical earth) which increases losses by a large margin.

Hence why cables are only buried in highly populated areas or areas where they may be detramental to the surroundings (e.g. they buried a length of it across Attenborough Nature reserve in Nottingham when the link was upgraded) and even then, its kept to the shortest distance possible.

Of course maintenance etc is also made considerably harder

[Varche]

The transmission losses associated with buried cables are much greater than those suspended from pylons.

If you want to be 'green' then keep them where they are

Blast. Wait a minute build the new power stations in peoples back yards and near conurbations and not in remote rural areas or worse out at sea?

[Marks DTM Calib]

DC is the answer......that allows smaller cables to as they run at peak voltage or current all the time (and not for micro seconds as they do on AC). You cna then bury them, put them under water etc etc etc.

Would need a heap of electronics to convert back to AC at the other end though!

[Marks DTM Calib]

As an indicator of the size of the kit needed for DC transmission, here is an aerial shot of the UK end of the DC link between England and France (2GW about 5% of the UK's need)

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.105961,0.975584&spn=0.003072,0.010525&t=h&z=17

[Kevin Wood]

If we don't get a sensible energy secretary sometime soon, pylons will be the least of our worries.

About time he withdrew his head from his 'arris and tackled the real issues rather than gimmicks like this.

Blast. Wait a minute build the new power stations in peoples back yards and near conurbations and not in remote rural areas or worse out at sea?

You have to build power stations where the considerable natural resources they require are located, even more so if you're going to use "renewables". You also have to connect them country-wide in a grid if you want secure power, again, especially so if you are going to use more "renewables".

So how do birds get electrocuted then?

Words fail me. 

All I can say is that if birds are getting that big I'm not going to walk under any pylons in future.

I suspect the reason that pylon design has been unchanged for so long is that the present structures are pretty much optimal and have been designed (by en-gineers ) to give maximum strength and stability from minimum material, which is actually what you want from both a cost perspective and to minimise their visual impact, surely? I fail to see how giving them to an artist to re-design will help matters.

Kevin

[CaptainZok]

If we don't get a sensible energy secretary sometime soon, pylons will be the least of our worries.

About time he withdrew his head from his 'arris and tackled the real issues rather than gimmicks like this.

Blast. Wait a minute build the new power stations in peoples back yards and near conurbations and not in remote rural areas or worse out at sea?

You have to build power stations where the considerable natural resources they require are located, even more so if you're going to use "renewables". You also have to connect them country-wide in a grid if you want secure power, again, especially so if you are going to use more "renewables".

So how do birds get electrocuted then?

Words fail me. 

All I can say is that if birds are getting that big I'm not going to walk under any pylons in future.

I suspect the reason that pylon design has been unchanged for so long is that the present structures are pretty much optimal and have been designed (by en-gineers ) to give maximum strength and stability from minimum material, which is actually what you want from both a cost perspective and to minimise their visual impact, surely? I fail to see how giving them to an artist to re-design will help matters.

Kevin

If TB complains about the deposits on the silver bullet now god knows what he'll be saying when one of those drops a dollop.

[Kevin Wood]

If TB complains about the deposits on the silver bullet now god knows what he'll be saying when one of those drops a dollop.

Yep. And the air will certainly turn blue when he can't find the silver bullet.

[Dishevelled Den]

If TB complains about the deposits on the silver bullet now god knows what he'll be saying when one of those drops a dollop.

Yep. And the air will certainly turn blue when he can't find the silver bullet.

You want to try living opposite 200+ rooks.