Transatlantic cable
November 2014
32
power generation – and is on track to reach 52GW in the near
future. Such a rate of penetration permits at least a tentative
judgment of the e ects of incorporating renewable energy into
a traditional supply system.
As reviewed by Barbara Vergetis Lundin in
FierceEnergy
, the SEIA
report acknowledged that the costs of Germany’s renewable
support programmes, including solar PV [photovoltaics],
have been substantial – and higher than projected. But the
researchers concluded that the German initiative is justi ed by
its bene ts. (“Germany’s Solar Story,” 31
st
July)
As expected, the advance into solar and other renewable energy
has contributed importantly to a reduction in atmospheric
pollution. But according to Rhone Resch, the president and CEO
of SEIA, there is also signi cant evidence that increased power
production from the new energy sources “is a major contributor
to falling wholesale market prices in Germany.”
A valuable lesson for USA solar energy interests from the
German experience is that a system of FITs [feed-in-tari s] can
be highly e ective in promoting the growth of solar PV. But,
the SEIA report cautions: “FITs for new installations should be
adjusted regularly and perhaps automatically. . . so as to avoid
undue increases of electricity rates for retail customers.”
A blot on the American landscape both
rural and urban, overhead wiring strung
pole-to-pole shows no sign of disappearing
The United States is famously the developed nation most willing
to tolerate the dis gurement of its public spaces and places with
overhead wiring strung between utility poles.
A crude solution defensible on economic grounds, if no other,
telephone poles that can startle European visitors go virtually
unnoticed by Americans in rural areas who accept them as the
price of connection.
Aesthetics apart, built-up areas have presented a particular
challenge since the
rst days of electricity-supported
communication. Densely populated US cities struggled to
string or lay, protect, maintain and repair their wiring with
minimal disruption to property and daily life. Probably the
busiest commercial terrain anywhere, New York City with its ve
boroughs provides an instructive example of an urban e ort.
This past summer Michael Pollak, whose column
FYI
elds
questions from readers of the
New York Times
, traced the practice
of burying utility wires in Manhattan to Thomas A Edison
himself, whose rst station for electric-power generation and
distribution was on Pearl Street in the borough.
Mr Edison’s strong recommendation was prompted by the
blizzard of 1888 which downed countless wires strung on
top-heavy wooden poles, many of them with four or more
crossbeams, and paralysed the city’s communications.
Joseph J Cunningham, a historian of New York electrical power,
cited another motivator for the ordinance prohibiting overhead
wires. He told
FYI
that in the 1880s the early arc-lighting system
for the streets operated at 2,000 volts and caused some hideous
public fatalities. Mr Cunningham said: “Imagine those cables
falling into snowdrifts.”
A directive for immediate removal of the overhead wires met
with resistance from some utility companies, whereupon
the angry mayor dispatched axe-wielding crews whom he
deputised, according to Mr Cunningham.
The dismantling commenced: “Two men climbed adjacent
poles, chopped the wire simultaneously from each end to avoid
dropping a live wire into the street, then cut down the poles.”
(As an aside, the legendary Blizzard of 1888 was also a major
impetus for the creation of the New York City subway, one of the
world’s oldest public transit systems.)
Poles by the many thousands
As for the outer boroughs – New York City beyond Manhattan
– information supplied by
FYI
indicates a staggering number of
telephone poles, some of them with impressive workloads:
A spokesman for Verizon, John J Bonomo, told Mr Pollak
that the company places its bre and copper wires on its
own poles, but also uses poles owned by Con Edison and,
in isolated cases, poles owned by municipalities or other
parties. Shared infrastructure space is the norm almost
everywhere, he said.
“And you’ll nd many di erent ‘tenants’ on poles besides just
telecommunications and power companies,” Mr Bonomo
said. “You’ll nd cable TV companies, wireless antennas,
municipal lines, streetlights, tra c lights, etc. It’s a busy place
up on poles.”
Poles owned by Verizon number: 103,119 in Queens, 69,391
in Brooklyn, 27,317 on Staten Island, and 25,224 in the Bronx.
(There are also seven Verizon telephone poles in Manhattan.
According to Mr Cunningham, those in private backyards
– or those holding only terminal boxes and without wires
strung above public thoroughfares – do not appear to
violate the ordinance prohibiting overhead wires.)
For Con Edison the numbers are: Queens, 39,309; Staten
Island, 28,734; Brooklyn, 20,339; the Bronx, 17,197; and
Manhattan, none
While some poles are made of concrete, a majority are still
Southern pine
Finally, Mr Cunningham, the historian of New York electrical
power, said that it was common practice as late as the 1920s
to run low-voltage phone wires along the back walls of
buildings
Technology
Recycling old batteries into solar cells
could divert a dangerous waste stream
while producing low-cost photovoltaics
As reported by Martin LaMonica in
IEEE Spectrum
, the magazine
of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, scientists
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology “have concocted
what could become the ultimate in green energy.”
After 18 months of testing, in August they announced a
successful e ort to make solar panels out of hazardous waste.
(“MIT Researchers Turn Used Car Batteries into Solar Cells,”
19
th
August)
The MIT team said its method of making perovskite solar
cells using the lead from recycled car batteries is a simple,
low-temperature, benign technique that produces experimental
