is there any reason to not prefer burying power lines over stringing them up in the air other than upfront cost
@halcy https://www.starenergypartners.com/blog/electricity-company/why-dont-we-bury-power-lines-underground/ mentions risk of damage due to flooding and worse accessibility, especially in winter.
@FiXato I mean the reason I ask is because i saw a video about power lines in the US but in germany they're like. mostly underground
@halcy the recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver? :)
Coming from the Netherlands I'm also more used to underground power lines, with the only above-ground ones being the tall, long distance, high voltage ones.
I suspect it's mostly a cost-saving history, which now would make 'upgrading' quite a bit more expensive due to increased population density making it harder to adopt the infrastructure. But perhaps a difference in climate and soil structure has something to do with it too.
@FiXato @halcy most of Europe has much less earthquakes, which is a big deal to underground cables, as you likely have to replace tons of it once it shears off in multiple places.
As for how much soil structure also change things, here in Sweden, at least in the north, a lot of power lines between towns are in the air, and that's because it's hard to dig in the ground to fix a cable when there's 1.5 meters of snow on the surface along the entire access road - which might be tens of kilometers from the closest public road
@ChlorideCull @FiXato it turns out that in addition to these things, for high voltage lines, buried lines are more susceptible to energy loss along the way, apparently
@FiXato @halcy oh, and the soil isn't the best for digging in during winter