According to articles in The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News , China's State Grid Corp, already dominating the electricity grid market in the world's second largest economy, has big plans for a Global Power Grid: a $50 trillion global power network that harnesses Arctic winds and equatorial sunlight, capitalizing on advances in renewable power and transmission technology.
"The $50 trillion estimated price is nearly twice the economic output of the U.S. and China combined."
"Doubts aside, State Grid’s vision has piqued the curiosity of the global energy sector. Among those who showed up at the conference State Grid organized to lay out its vision included Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Administration, and Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Japan conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp".
"Rather than far-fetched, the State Grid plan is straightforward and much of it is technically feasible, some experts said. “Most of its premises are fundamentally correct,” said David Sandalow, a former U.S. acting undersecretary of energy who has spoken with Mr. Liu about State Grid’s proposal and attended Wednesday’s conference."
Whether or not feasible eventually, this ambitious idea at least serves to concentrate minds on thinking globally and collectively (rather than selfishly) for long-term solutions to Climate Change on what is essentially One Earth.
As for finance, the idea comes hot on the heels of China's epochal One Belt, One Road initiative, supported by a newly formed Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB) with 57 Founding Member Countries (and a waiting list of more than 30 countries) and a Silk Road Fund of $40 billion. Together with the renamed New Development Bank (the former BRICS Bank) and public-private partnership, at least a small part of this gigantic vision may well be possible to be kick-started for the future of the Planet.
Indeed, connectivity, not sovereignty, is beginning to emerge as the defining feature of the 21st century. Of this, infrastructural connectivity between mega-cities around the globe is destined to play a vital role. Click here
Comments