In my estimate of 50% efficiency for conventional high voltage DC systems, I assumed the combined loss of both step-up and rectification stages to be a total of 10% loss (90% efficient). I call 10% "significant". Moreover, I took as a starting point the most optimistic figure of the widely-accepted 60%-40% efficiency range for NG generators. Even assuming the loss were 0%, 50% as the mid-point, is a reasonable comparative value.
On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 8:13 PM, David Weinshenker <[email protected]>wrote: > James Bowery wrote: > > Comparing apples to apples, one must look at the efficiency of converting > > natural gas to megavolt DC -- a preferred energy vector for long distance > > transmission. NG generators run between 40% and 60%. Step up to very > high > > voltage DC is an area of rapid advancement but I would expect there to be > > significant losses there. > > Probably not in the conversion process as such. Any generator is going to > be thermodynamically limited by the temperature ratio, but large-scale > transformers and rectifier/inverter systems are fairly efficient, and > dissipate a relatively small fraction of the total power which passes > through them. > > -dave w > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] > http://exrocketry.net/mailman/listinfo/arocket >
