Where to get 1.21 Gigawatts of Power

[Snagglefoot]

Marty needed 1.21 Gigawatts of power for his Delorean in the 1984 movie Back to the Future. Where would you get that kind of power?

One answer is the Champlain Hudson Power Express that may be built from Quebec to New York City carrying hydro derived electricity. The line will have 1,250 Megawatts of capacity or 1.25 Gigawatts, enough to power up the Delorian with the flux capacitor.

Here is a map of the route. The interesting thing is much of it will be imbedded in a trench jetted into the bottom of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. The rest will be buried underground.

 

[Zee09]

I get all of my power at night when my neighbors go to bed.
All you need is two 100 foot cords and get up real early the next day ..

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

I have the DeLorean name on my car. The cast reunited a couple weeks ago in Philadelphia.

Here is the Flux Capacitor, with Time Circuits.

 

[97prizm]

Very cool. From what I remember Michael j Fox or Christopher Lloyd mispronounced "Gigawatt" as "jigawatt" so the producers left it in.

 

[supton]

Very cool. From what I remember Michael j Fox or Christopher Lloyd mispronounced "Gigawatt" as "jigawatt" so the producers left it in.

I had a prof in college (he would be in his 90’s now) who pronounced it the same way. Not sure if he was sticking to an old pronunciation or having a subtle laugh, as I could see him enjoying the movie.

Another prof, same age, didn’t like the change from cycles per second to Hertz. Yep, I got my cranky old man training early in life.

 

[Shannow]

Funny he had a phot of edison, and Tesla wasn't on his hit parade...

Anyway, for how long ?

A handful of Pu isn't generating that power...so for the time element to actually charge something.

I reckon there's a few GW in my hand approaching a door handle, but for a nonething of a second...

 

[4WD]

Marty needed 1.21 Gigawatts of power for his Delorean in the 1984 movie Back to the Future. Where would you get that kind of power?

One answer is the Champlain Hudson Power Express that may be built from Quebec to New York City carrying hydro derived electricity. The line will have 1,250 Megawatts of capacity or 1.25 Gigawatts, enough to power up the Delorian with the flux capacitor.

Here is a map of the route. The interesting thing is much of it will be imbedded in a trench jetted into the bottom of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. The rest will be buried underground.

View attachment 161112

Oh my - Wut could go wrong ?

 

[Number_35]

Funny he had a phot of edison, and Tesla wasn't on his hit parade...

Anyway, for how long ?

A handful of Pu isn't generating that power...so for the time element to actually charge something.

I reckon there's a few GW in my hand approaching a door handle, but for a nonething of a second...

A prof was explaining to us the difference between power and energy. He said "If you have a 1.5 kW toaster and run it for two hours, what's the result?"

The expected answer was 3 kW-hr.

The class clown piped up with "Burnt toast!"

 

[brianl703]

The class clown piped up with "Burnt toast!"

Or a house fire, if said toaster was some Chinese piece of junk purchased on Amazon.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Oh my - Wut could go wrong ?

Lots of hot water for coffee.

 

[y_p_w]

My understanding is that at a peak, a typical lightning strike is about 250 million volts and 25,000 amps. So the peak power output of that strike would be in the terawatts.

But then again, it's very transitory. A capacitor soaks up energy, so we'd have to know how long it stays that way. We can rely on our wall outlet putting out a consistent, steady voltage and current because it's relatively small.

And Back the Future plays fast and loose with basic electrical issues. Maybe it needs 1.21 gigawatts, but what happens if the system gets more than a thousand times that power? It's probably going to blow up without some sort of regulator if the voltage can't be controlled. And even then it's probably going to blow up with that much power unless the regulator is the size of at least a bedroom. Then there's the question of energy (power x time).

 

[y_p_w]

A prof was explaining to us the difference between power and energy. He said "If you have a 1.5 kW toaster and run it for two hours, what's the result?"

The expected answer was 3 kW-hr.

The class clown piped up with "Burnt toast!"

In high school and college physics we would have done that in joules.

 

[Snagglefoot]

In high school and college physics we would have done that in joules.

Our natural gas is sold in Giga joules up here (GJ). Or Jee Jays).

 

[PandaBear]

I had a prof in college (he would be in his 90’s now) who pronounced it the same way. Not sure if he was sticking to an old pronunciation or having a subtle laugh, as I could see him enjoying the movie.

Another prof, same age, didn’t like the change from cycles per second to Hertz. Yep, I got my cranky old man training early in life.

I too prefer units of rpm instead of Hz, who did he think he is?

 

[irad]

Is the transmission HVDC or HVAC?

 

[nomas]

I too prefer units of rpm instead of Hz, who did he think he is?

My test equipment read Hertz ( or kHz )

 

[Number_35]

In high school and college physics we would have done that in joules.

This was specifically an electronics course. Agreed, in physics it was joules.

 

[MolaKule]

I get all of my power at night when my neighbors go to bed.
All you need is two 100 foot cords and get up real early the next day ..

 

[Snagglefoot]

Is the transmission HVDC or HVAC?

Looks like HVDC.