JMO The US has a history of over emphasis of visual problems....

JMO The US has a history of over emphasis of visual problems. Here is a brief history of major cancelations when projects were partially complete.

The transmission lines from the Dakotas to bring wind power to the shores of great Lakes. The lines were fully permitted and under construction before the first Wind Generator was put up. When people saw what they were, political unrest stopped construction. First with violence then with laws.


New Hampshire's Northern Pass. Canada has a surplus of cheap clean hydro energy. There are no high capacity transmission lines between US and Canada. This was going to be solved by Northern Pass. Project was approved and permitted construction was ahead of schedule in Canada and northern NH. Then as construction moved south into higher density populations people started screaming about it being ugly. Construction was stopped but it took almost 15 years the company tried to cooperate by burring certain sections at 5X the cost underground. Soil in NH is very thin, then Granet. NH is called the Granet State. A buried cable requires a lot of explosives. After this failed Maine power said they would do it thru Maine. There plans even included offshore Sub Marine cable in the south to stop complainers in NH and MA. Again, construction went well till the project moved further south. It is shut down now but not cancelled, it is in the courts. I personally do not like seeing these. I understand they are critical to our survival. Northern pass would have gone 3 miles from my home. I would not see it at home but most of my local travels would have put it in clear view. I supported it. I lost friends over this.

As you pointed out AC has problems with capacitance and inductance as voltages and currents increase. The only way to over come this is high voltage DC transmission < 1M volts. So either the safety requirements for broken lines has to be lowered so the towers can be lower or we have to get use to towers being very tall, or fail miserably in lowering CO2 by going electric. Personally I think solution is many smaller Nuclear plants. These cannot use Enriched uranium high pressure which is just dangerous. There is alternate technology fully developed. We just have to change our mind set.