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Economics Main Page
How much will a grid cost? For any reasonable system across the EU and with trans-mediterranean power lines the figure will inevitably run into the hundreds of billions of Euros. That said, the expense would be incurred over say twenty years. Between the twenty five countries of the European Union this is not a major outlay...yet the benefits of a linked up electricity system are enormous.
There is the ability to sell low cost electricity thousands of miles away. Once electricity that is cheaply generated is available to markets that will pay well - the power stations will follow. In this context the possibility of Geothermal power from Iceland or Turkey, tidal power from the North of Scotland and Scandinavian Hydro Power possibly supplying homes and plant in Hungary.
HVDC superhighways using a lighter cables and not requiring large numbers of grid connections are more amenable to being placed underground or undersea. When one factors in the social and environmental delays of pylons these options become even more financially attractive.
The Stern Review made it clear that the earlier we "clean up our act" (our words) the less it will cost. This is supported by the Garnaut Climate Change Review published a year later ( 2008). Nothing published or announced since then has changed this outlook and indeed the position appears to have deteriorated.
one of the most effective methods of reduction of Greenhouse Gases is to establish as soon as possible an efficient system of Emissions Trading (Known as Cap and Trade). The effect of this is to put a price per tonne on abatement - and then allow the market to find the best way to make it happen.
How HVDC is integrated into this structure is a matter of debate. At present the Carbon Trading mechanism does not take account of the massive benefits DC can bring in allowing transmission of clean electricity to locations where it is currently located.