Quote:
Originally Posted by BADDASSC6
That would require a huge capital investment by the government to accomplish. Upkeep would also be substantial. The other major issue it that transporting energy results in a 25% loss so the return on investment would be zero or close to zero. I would rather have the consumer assume the risk and have my own power plant on board. Especially is you want the "off the grid" capability.
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AC transmission losses depend on a number of factors. Estimated average in the US is around 7%. This includes some quite long runs. In a half decent world with fusion plants immediately adjacent to metropolitan areas, that would go down even more.
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=105&t=3
Rail lines around the world (like Japan) have their grid on the centenary system and this kind of thing has been around for a long time. What I'm suggesting is only an extension of this idea really. It would be part of the road system. Economically this could work in a variety of ways. The easiest, though not necessarily best is for producer of electricity to wholesale into a government road grid, which is then resold to end users.
The grid (gird of subgrids) in the US is pretty long in the tooth without much slack capacity AFIK. In any event, it's going to have to be addressed one way or another in the not so distant future.
But no doubt, retrofitting something like what I'm talking about into existing roads would be a major project, but I think eventually that's where it will be as part of how things are done at least in densely populated areas. Basically EVERYTHING on demand.