[XorNot]

Solar reliability is a big unsolved problem. Even at nation-state scale, we can't store power at enough scale without having to massively overbuild and even then.

The right way to fix this of course would be to take the same technology that lays undersea fiber optics, and take REBCO superconducting tapes and lay completely efficient under-sea power cables to locations with 8 hour separations around the world, then build solar their. It becomes a very different equation if you start having reliable sunlight.

We could do this today - none of it requires new technology. What it would require is a degree of international cooperation and trust which would be more or less unprecedented.

I do kind of wish some "change the world" billionaires would get interested in this, because it's an expensive project but it can both make money and is not the sort of the thing that requires more then commercial cooperation agreements to get started. And a single, global-scale electricity grid would definitely revolutionize things.

[gregw2]

It’s one form of risk to potentially allow your adversary to cut your undersea communication channel which has an over the air transmission backup, quite another to allow an adversary to cut your energy channel used by all homes hospitals and businesses, and with even less of a backup.

To get a billionaire interested you can’t position this tech as a global solution; it’s a nonstarter. However you could get a billionaire interested if you identify an economic arbitrage opportunity it enables that isn’t easily eroded.