07-16-2026, 12:51 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-16-2026, 01:31 AM by HereOnThePrimalEdge.)
HPP to Hilo.. is that the size of your world Edge?
It’s a limited view, isn’t it? A few months ago when I arrived in Hilo, I got on a jet airplane and flew to Honolulu. To expand my horizons. From there I got on another jet airplane to Tokyo. Even more distant horizons.
You would be surprised what can be seen from a plane in Japan. Mountains. Long stretches of forests where there are no roads and no buildings. Yet, across those expanses are concrete platforms with tall towers, connected by wires. It’s hard to imagine how they were constructed, my best guess is helicopters? What must it cost to build one tower after another with no access, up and down, over valleys, across mountaintops? Power lines that go on for great distances supplying no electricity to anyone mile after mile? And yet, electricity costs $.20 kWh. In a country with two separate networks, one at 50 hz the other 60 hz, and somehow it all works at a reasonable cost to consumers.
I wanted to add that since the cost of transmission lines for electricity is somehow dependent on the price of milk (see quote below), Hokkaido dairy products are nearly as expensive as in Hawaii. One of a few high cost necessities in Japan. But the Hokkaido soft serve at the Costco food court there is worth every penny. How do they make it THAT much better? OMG.
a gazillion ways the costs of transmission for the guy in the heartland is cheaper no matter.. the cost of a gallon of milk. Pole for pole it's off the scale here compared to there.
It’s a limited view, isn’t it? A few months ago when I arrived in Hilo, I got on a jet airplane and flew to Honolulu. To expand my horizons. From there I got on another jet airplane to Tokyo. Even more distant horizons.
You would be surprised what can be seen from a plane in Japan. Mountains. Long stretches of forests where there are no roads and no buildings. Yet, across those expanses are concrete platforms with tall towers, connected by wires. It’s hard to imagine how they were constructed, my best guess is helicopters? What must it cost to build one tower after another with no access, up and down, over valleys, across mountaintops? Power lines that go on for great distances supplying no electricity to anyone mile after mile? And yet, electricity costs $.20 kWh. In a country with two separate networks, one at 50 hz the other 60 hz, and somehow it all works at a reasonable cost to consumers.
I wanted to add that since the cost of transmission lines for electricity is somehow dependent on the price of milk (see quote below), Hokkaido dairy products are nearly as expensive as in Hawaii. One of a few high cost necessities in Japan. But the Hokkaido soft serve at the Costco food court there is worth every penny. How do they make it THAT much better? OMG.
a gazillion ways the costs of transmission for the guy in the heartland is cheaper no matter.. the cost of a gallon of milk. Pole for pole it's off the scale here compared to there.