Copper is a major limiting factor for the growth of renewable energy tech

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Copper isn't the best conductor in the world. Silver and platinum are much better conductors, Gold is close and non-oxidising.

The reason renewables use so much copper is in the wiring installation.



If we had absolute power factor correction we could change voltage and DC -> AC with minimum losses. This would make inverters, micro-inverters, and low voltage transformer supplies much more efficient. Micro grids could then pop up as local generation becomes more transportable.

Americans are using twice as much copper running on a 110V system.

Anglo-Saxons (A/S land) is great at wasting precious resources. 110V as you point out in US. A tiny % of journeys take place on public transport in A/S land - close to 80% of journeys in Zurich are on public transport because it so supremely excellent - ie public transport ZH style is out to beat the Merc or Porsche on quality of service and convenience and price. Some of the trams are probably close to 100 years old running on one of the 18 tram lines - while others were made in 2014. They have a long shelf life, running largely on renewable energy, carrying huge amounts of people with a minimum of delay (tram every 5 minutes on most lines).

While IRL is not an A/S country, it behaves like one. Crap public transport, no integrated ticketing, huge amounts of energy intensive waste put in landfill rather than using it to produce district heating or electricity, and Ireland has copied the stupid and dangerous wiring system used in Britain with its obsolete fuses in plugs (an RCD based trip switch system used in the rest of Europe is far safer and faster at turning off power to prevent electrocution and fires). Not to mention the benefit of the European 2 pin plug, which is "use it anywhere friendly like a GSM phone".

Siemens installed the electricity system in Ireland and used German 2 pin plugs as are used in the rest of Europe (aside from Gibraltar (a British Colony) and Malta (a neutral Republic within the EU which was occupied by the Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Normans, Sicilians, Napoleon and British over the past millennium or so. Each left their mark on the place. The British mark was the three pin flat plug, driving on the wrong side of the road, and public houses). Anyway some dumb idiot Irish civil servant decided to change everything in the 1960s and copy GB with its three pin flat plug, long after the RCD/trip switch was the norm elsewhere.