Reply to post: Re: 3rd most Abundant element in Earth's crust should be used more ?

Copper shortage keeps green energy, tech ventures grounded

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: 3rd most Abundant element in Earth's crust should be used more ?

The simplification taught in schools is useful, but not the whole story. For electricity transmission purposes, there’s more to it than just the resistance and diameter to determine useful performance. The skin effect is such that bigger diameter gives diminishing returns; and if trying to shunt lots of current around, both thermal and electrical performance become important to building things that will last more than 5 min.

We do have alu transmission cable but it’s uses are restricted by the desire to minimise land take, trenching, earthmoving etc. alu is good for bare overhead lines; but pretty poor for underground.

In WW2, copper was a protected metal I.e. wholly reserved for the most critical purposes. The US treasury actually allowed the manufacture of some Silver transformers to avoid the need to use valuable copper.

Internally to my org I wrote a 60-page pamphlet on cable design and performance; summarising the best part of 150 years development.

In the recent Chilean general election. Copper mining was a major issue on the agenda; with new mines being blocked by the incoming administration.

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