Preface
The mainland has developed a third-generation electric pole, while the United States, the world's largest economic power, is still using wooden telephone poles that are not used in the mainland's rural areas.
Why, then, is the U.S. still insisting on using wooden poles? Is it because they have other functions?
Disadvantages of wooden poles
When you think of wooden telephone poles, you will think of disaster movies shot in the United States, and of course, when natural disasters come, you will recreate in your mind when you see those wooden telephone poles in American movies soaring into the sky, and then being torn apart by tornadoes, and the wood flying everywhere.
You must know that the United States is the world's largest economic power, why would it use such a wooden telephone pole whose quality cannot be guaranteed, it really does not conform to the image of a superpower with a strong economy and science and technology, and it has a feeling of backwardness.
In fact, in our mind, wooden telephone poles seem to be made of materials from a very early age.
Indeed, in the last century, many countries and regions used wooden poles, wooden poles were also used as a more common material for power transmission, communication and urban planning at that time, mainly because wooden poles can easily obtain materials.
Therefore, wooden telephone poles can often be seen in some old movies of the last century.
But now that it's the 21st century, even the countryside in our country will no longer use such "primitive" materials as telephone poles.
Mainly because the disadvantages of wooden poles are too obvious.
First of all, the wooden pole is used to erect the high-voltage line through the main role, the high voltage of the high-voltage line has something to do with the electric fire, and the wooden pole is originally made of wood, once the wire is fired, it is easy to fire.
If it's a vast and sparsely populated place, it's fine, but if there are haystacks or houses near the countryside, then the consequences are unimaginable!
In addition, wooden poles are originally masterpieces of nature, but once they are made into poles, the wood that loses its vitality will slowly begin to age, so it will not be reliable in terms of quality, and it will be broken and damaged.
Not only that, but because they are made of wood, they are also more likely to be eaten by birds, such as rice, or eaten by insects and eventually corroded.
Even a wooden telephone pole with a height of 8 meters is estimated to weigh more than 100 kilograms, making it vulnerable to natural disasters.
You must know that because wooden poles are relatively light, even larger typhoons can blow off wooden poles, let alone face large-scale natural disasters such as flash floods and torrential rains.
Even in ordinary thunder and lightning weather, if the lightning happens to hit the wooden power pole, the power pole will be directly damaged!
Therefore, there are simply too many disadvantages of wooden poles.
So why does the United States still use more wooden telephone poles, is it because of other uses?
Why the United States uses wooden poles
In fact, this has a lot to do with the American system, you must know that many of the American power grids are operated by private companies.
Therefore, wood is a very "money-saving" way, so by choosing to use wooden poles, you can "reduce costs" to the greatest extent.
Therefore, private enterprises must be driven by profits, and they will not get along with money.
Of course, there must be other reasons for this.
It seems that the use of wooden telephone poles in the United States is very "cost-effective", but it is not.
However, the United States is also very advantageous, because the United States has a very wide forest area, more than 3 million square kilometers, accounting for 7.6% of the world's total forest area, and is a very timber-rich country.
And because of the high latitude in North America, many of the trees that grow in the forests of the United States are very tall pine trees, or silver fir trees.
Pine and silver fir trees have tall trunks and are not too wide.
Whoever sees such a tall trunk doesn't think they will be amazed that it is so good, and it's a pity not to use it as a telephone pole!
Therefore, this is the main reason why American electric utilities choose to use wooden power poles, because using these trees everywhere can maximize their profit margins.
At the same time, it can also leave a good reputation for environmental protection, but in fact, if the rotten and damaged trunk is burned, it will also produce a large amount of carbon dioxide, which is not necessarily very environmentally friendly.
Another reason is that the population of the United States is relatively small, but there is a lot of area suitable for the population to live in, and modern human beings have the need for electricity, and it is impossible for modern people to live without electricity.
The power of these electric power in the United States can be described as "Alexander", because the wider the coverage area, the more it means that a large number of power poles are needed, and the use of concrete power poles is too expensive, so the choice of wood power poles is the best choice.
Although the life of wooden poles is very short, fortunately, the United States is quite good at the field of materials science, so the life of wooden poles with special treatment can still be slightly extended.
Anyway, let's make the benefits of this place first, and then talk about it, as for when the wooden pole is broken, then find someone to repair it at that time, anyway, there are trees everywhere, and it is also very convenient to repair, as for the experience, that's another matter!
In fact, climate is also an important factor in their choices.
As we all know, some areas of the United States will have frequent hurricanes, floods and other disasters every summer and autumn, and the United States has the most tornadoes in the world, with an average of more than 430 times a year.
So, for American electric utilities, using cheap wood kills two birds with one stone!
Why, then, are wooden poles rarely used on the mainland?
Why doesn't China use it now
First of all, this must have something to do with the relatively late start of China's modernization.
You must know that when New China was first founded in 1949, the annual electricity consumption in rural areas of the mainland was only 20 million kilowatt hours, and the average annual electricity consumption of each farmer was only 0.05 kWh.
Countless farmers in New China could not use electricity at all, and many rural people of the older generation only used it in the eighties and nineties of the last century, while the United States was already a developed country at the same time, but telephone poles were also made of wooden poles during that period.
Therefore, because of the late start of China's development, the laying of the power system is not fast, so when China lays the power system on a large scale, there will be more choices.
However, in the early part of the last century, there was a lot of use of wooden poles in China, mainly because the cost of wooden poles was low enough and they were easy to obtain.
In other words, in the process of development, China's power system is becoming more and more perfect, with the world's largest large-scale power generation system, which can ensure the common electricity consumption of 1.4 billion people.
However, if you want to ensure that so many people can have electricity at the same time, the use of wooden poles will not be enough.
First of all, wooden telephone poles are natural materials, and they are prone to bacteria and fungi during the rainy season in China.
Because wooden poles need to be erected outdoors for a long time, they have also become the target of moths and woodbirds, and their service life has been shortened.
Moreover, China is a country with a population of 1.4 billion people, and the intricate power lines can only be hung on low-cost wooden power poles, and this practice has great safety risks.
Therefore, in order to make the poles more durable, cement poles are commonly used in China, which are made of reinforced concrete, which are not easy to corrode, and the service life can reach about 60 years.
Therefore, it is more suitable for China to use cement power poles.
Moreover, after entering the 21st century, China's degree of urbanization is getting higher and higher, and the people have used electricity for lighting from the very beginning, to now there are more and more refrigerators, LCD TVs, induction cookers, and even more and more popular new energy vehicles, so the demand for electricity is greater.
Wooden poles, which are inherently lightweight, simply can't build so many wires that they can easily collapse or be damaged.
Therefore, it is more appropriate to use cement poles with heavier and more durable mass.
So, which is better, wooden pole or cement pole?
Which one is better
The answer is obvious, it must be cement poles are better, there is no doubt about it.
Because there are too many shortcomings of wooden telephone poles, it is slightly more suitable for use in places like the United States, where there are many places where wood is sparsely populated.
If it is in a humid area, the life of the wooden pole will definitely be shorter, so it is better to make sure that the cement pole is not good, even if the United States is so blessed with such a unique condition.
As a result, the power system in the United States, which is dominated by wooden power poles, often has problems, and large-scale and small-scale power outages often occur.
Since China entered the 21st century, there have been very few power outages, which must have something to do with better quality power poles, but in fact, China has better!
The Chinese population is relatively densely distributed, a large number of people are concentrated in the city, once the night falls, the electricity demand of the whole city also rises sharply, and even cement power poles may not be able to meet the demand.
Therefore, China has even begun to lay a large number of special high-voltage power line towers, and it is precisely by relying on this set of combined technologies that a stable power supply can be ensured in the developed areas of the mainland.
Not only that, most of China's cities and towns have already replaced the telephone poles with steel frames and concrete, and the conditional areas are even more underground wiring for power transmission, and the cities are much cleaner and tidy.
Some areas of the mainland have begun to build "underground cables", which is also a key project of the 12th Five-Year Plan, because even advanced power poles, it is always outside the wind and rain all year round, and it is inevitable that it needs to be repaired and maintained frequently.
Therefore, the best solution is to eliminate wooden telephone poles in the mainland.
In fact, the main power supply network in the United States is generally made of concrete, composite, galvanized steel poles.
However, because the wooden poles themselves have been used for more than a century in the United States, and have even become a culture under the packaging of these electric power companies in the United States, it is not easy to completely replace them.
epilogue
For the United States, since the power resources are controlled by private enterprises, the ownership of the "electricity bill" can also be said to be theirs.
However, after all, electricity is an important civilian facility, and the pole body built in the last century obviously needs to be re-improved.
In the face of these disasters, even concrete poles cannot be stopped, so considering the problem of post-disaster reconstruction and the frequency of bad weather, it may be that wooden poles are more suitable for the United States.
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