Cables—most often made from copper—are the backbone of the world’s electricity grid and they’ll be even more in demand as we ramp up renewable energy.
According to a new report by BNN Bloomberg, spending on the humble cable will have to rise just as dramatically as global spending on new solar & wind energy if we’re to hit our collective climate goals.
The UK, says Bloomberg, is typical. The country plans to add 50 GW of offshore wind power by 2030, more than tripling current capacity at a cost of about £120B. To make sure it gets used it will spend £54B to link turbines out at sea to the grid on essential infrastructure like cables.
Its the same story everywhere. China is spending $350B through 2025 on upgrades to increase the transmission of renewable power while the US is spending $200B on cables to meet 2030 climate goals.
Overall, the International Energy Agency says global investment in power grids would need to hit $820B per year by 2030, up from about $260B in 2020, to get on track to limit global warming to 1.5° Celsius. In other words an awful lot of cables.
New solar farms and wind parks have generally just been added to the existing grid, but as we scale up all this new clean energy the word will need to build much more network to maximise renewable-energy deployment.
That will cost for starters, but changes to grids and the infrastructure to link all the moving parts can also face opposition from politicians and communities for all sorts of reasons.
Grids—and the cables that make them work—may not be the most exciting topic, but its the investment we need to make.