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Electricity transmission projects are generally presented in costs per mile, because, well, a mile of electric cable costs more than a half mile.
So, cities that mandate sprawl with bans on multi-family housing lock-in very high transmission costs per user.
It gets worse.
So, cities that mandate sprawl with bans on multi-family housing lock-in very high transmission costs per user.
It gets worse.
One feature of electricity is, it wants to escape its copper prison as heat. And it does! "Line losses" increase as a function of distance, ambient temps (hot weather = more loss), & other factors.
So, sprawl drives up cost of transmission AND of energy.
But wait! There's more.
So, sprawl drives up cost of transmission AND of energy.
But wait! There's more.
California has ~ 270,000 miles of transmission/distribution lines, much of which pass through areas of extreme fire danger.
What this means: We've built a brittle, expensive, vulnerable power grid that grows in cost each year.
That's the true cost of single-family zoning.
What this means: We've built a brittle, expensive, vulnerable power grid that grows in cost each year.
That's the true cost of single-family zoning.
One of the many, many aspects of climate resilience that California is failing at (and Texas is learning the hard way this week):
Sprawl makes grid resilience both physically impossible and financially infeasible. You can't provide everyone with own private backup generator.
Sprawl makes grid resilience both physically impossible and financially infeasible. You can't provide everyone with own private backup generator.
You can't afford to upgrade to cutting-edge grid management technologies across 270,000 miles of T&D.
You can't achieve energy efficiency targets -- targets that are *the core* of climate action -- while individually heating and electrifying millions of new single-family homes.
You can't achieve energy efficiency targets -- targets that are *the core* of climate action -- while individually heating and electrifying millions of new single-family homes.
If Texas has anything to learn from California power experience, it's that our efforts at building efficiency are only reason our grid hasn't completely collapsed. Texas should copy them.
But those efforts are gonna go off rails if we don't stop sprawling.
But those efforts are gonna go off rails if we don't stop sprawling.
A LEED platinum mansion in the forests of Santa Cruz makes every climate problem worse: On grid vulnerability, on transportation emissions, and even on energy efficiency; it's using multiples of the energy and T&D cost required for a luxury condo in an urban core.
We need to legalize homes in our cities. For equity, for justice, and for the pure, self-preservation aspects of not locking in a future of ever-worsening blackouts and air pollution.
This shit is expensive, y'all https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-24/a-new-report-says-sprawl-costs-america-1-trillion-a-year
