Billionaire Bets On 'New Electric Highways' Across America

While Egyptian pyramids are surrounded by many myths and legends, researchers have little scientifically reliable information about their physical properties. Physicists recently took an interest in how the Great Pyramid would interact with electromagnetic waves of a resonant length. Calculations showed that in the resonant state, the pyramid can concentrate electromagnetic energy in the its internal chambers as well as under its base, where the third unfinished chamber is located.

These conclusions were derived on the basis of numerical modeling and analytical methods of physics. The researchers first estimated that resonances in the pyramid can be induced by radio waves with a length ranging from 200 to 600 meters. Then they made a model of the electromagnetic response of the pyramid and calculated the extinction cross section. This value helps to estimate which part of the incident wave energy can be scattered or absorbed by the pyramid under resonant conditions. Finally, for the same conditions, the scientists obtained the electromagnetic field distribution inside the pyramid.

In order to explain the results, the scientists conducted a multipole analysis. This method is widely used in physics to study the interaction between a complex object and electromagnetic field. The object scattering the field is replaced by a set of simpler sources of radiation: multipoles. The collection of multipole radiation coincides with the field scattering by an entire object. Therefore, knowing the type of each multipole, it is possible to predict and explain the distribution and configuration of the scattered fields in the whole system.

The Great Pyramid attracted the researchers while they were studying the interaction between light and dielectric nanoparticles. The scattering of light by nanoparticles depends on their size, shape and refractive index of the source material. Varying these parameters, it is possible to determine the resonance scattering regimes and use them to develop devices for controlling light at the nanoscale.

"Egyptian pyramids have always attracted great attention. We as scientists were interested in them as well, so we decided to look at the Great Pyramid as a particle dissipating radio waves resonantly. Due to the lack of information about the physical properties of the pyramid, we had to use some assumptions. For example, we assumed that there are no unknown cavities inside, and the building material with the properties of an ordinary limestone is evenly distributed in and out of the pyramid. With these assumptions made, we obtained interesting results that can find important practical applications," says Dr. Sc. Andrey Evlyukhin, scientific supervisor and coordinator of the research.

Now, the scientists plan to use the results to reproduce similar effects at the nanoscale. "Choosing a material with suitable electromagnetic properties, we can obtain pyramidal nanoparticles with a promise for practical application in nanosensors and effective solar cells," says Polina Kapitainova, Ph.D., a member of the Faculty of Physics and Technology of ITMO University.

Limestone concrete hypothesis
Davidovits believes that the blocks of the pyramid are not carved stone, but mostly a form of limestone concrete and that they were "cast" as with modern concrete.[1] According to this hypothesis, soft limestone with a high kaolinite content was quarried in the wadi on the south of the Giza Plateau. The limestone was then dissolved in large, Nile-fed pools until it became a watery slurry. Lime (found in the ash of cooking fires) and natron (also used by the Egyptians in mummification) were mixed in. The pools were then left to evaporate, leaving behind a moist, clay-like mixture. This wet "concrete" would be carried to the construction site where it would be packed into reusable wooden moulds and in a few days would undergo a chemical reaction similar to the curing of concrete. New blocks, he suggests, could be cast in place, on top of and pressed against the old blocks. Proof-of-concept tests using similar compounds were carried out at a geopolymer institute in northern France and it was found that a crew of five to ten, working with simple hand tools, could agglomerate a structure of five, 1.3 to 4.5 ton blocks in a couple of weeks.[2] He also claims that the Famine Stele, along with other hieroglyphic texts, describe the technology of stone agglomeration.

Davidovits's method is not accepted by the academic mainstream. His method does not explain the granite stones, weighing well over 10 tons, above the King's Chamber, which he agrees were carved. Geologists have carefully scrutinized Davidovits's suggested technique and concluded his concrete came from natural limestone quarried in the Mokattam Formation.[3] However, Davidovits alleges that the bulk of the soft limestone came from the same natural Mokkatam Formation quarries found by geologists, and insists that ancient Egyptians used the soft marly layer instead of the hard layer to re-agglomerate stones.

Davidovits's hypothesis gained support from Michel Barsoum, a materials science researcher.[4] Michel Barsoum and his colleagues at Drexel University published their findings supporting Davidovits's hypothesis in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society in 2006. Using scanning electron microscopy, they discovered in samples of the limestone pyramid blocks mineral compounds and air bubbles that do not occur in natural limestone.[5]

An Arab who got the shock of his life on the summit
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When you look up at the Great Pyramid, it's apex seems to be missing. It is flap topped and not pointed like a pyramid should be.

Usually, when a pyramid was constructed, the top part, or capstone (also called top-stone), was the last thing to be placed on it. It was considered the most important part of the pyramid and was made of special stone or even gold. The capstone was usually highly decorated.

An example of a capstone in the Cairo museum
Was the great pyramid always without a capstone or was it stolen, destroyed, etc? No one knows but the accounts of visitors to the pyramid from the ancient past (as far back as the time of Christ) always reported that the pyramid lacked a capstone. It is possible that it was never finished. Another possibility is that capstones were sometimes made of gold and maybe the first thing looted. The only problem is that this would be a very large capstone. If you climbed to the top, you could walk around very freely on the pyramid as many have done. It is about 30 feet in each direction. Thus, this capstone would have been huge and weighed a tremendous amount. Also on the summit you would see something that looks like a mast or flagpole. Actually it was placed there by two astronomers in 1874 to show where the Pyramid's actual apex would have been if finished.





On the back of a dollar bill, you can see a pyramid with a flat top. No one has been able to explain why the Great Pyramid would have been built without a capstone. This is an interesting story associated with a visit to the top of the great pyramid. Many tourists have climbed to the top, which is not an easy journey. One such person was Sir Siemen's, a British inventor. He climbed to the top with his Arab guides. One of his guides called attention to the fact that when he raised his hand with outspread fingers, he would hear an acute ringing noise. Siemen raised his index finger and felt a distinct prickling sensation. He also received an electric shock when he tried to drink from a bottle of wine that he had brought with him. Being a scientist, Siemen than moistened a newspaper and wrapped it around the wine bottle to convert it into a Leyden jar (an early form of a capacitor). When he held it above his head, it became charged with electricity. Sparks then were emitted from the bottle. One of the Arab guides got frightened and thought Siemen was up to some witchcraft and attempted to seize Siemen's companion. When Siemen's noticed this, he pointed the bottle towards the Arab and gave him such a shock that it knocked the Arab to the ground almost rendering him unconscious. When he recovered, he took off down the pyramid shouting loudly. What kind of natural phenomena on the top of the Great Pyramid could produce such an electo-static effect? It would be interesting to conduct additional physics experiments on the top of the Great Pyramid.

GridUnited wrote:Technology
Understanding Direct Current Technology
Direct current (DC) is the preferred technology for moving large amounts of power across long distances. DC results in higher overall efficiency and reliability than an equivalently-sized alternating current (AC) system moving the same amount of power.

The Advantages of DC
More Efficient
Over long distances, DC transmission can move more power with less electrical losses than an equivalent AC transmission line.

Lower Cost
Higher efficiency means a lower transmission cost, resulting in overall lower costs to electricity consumers.

Improved Reliability
HVDC transmission can enhance system stability, allow the operator complete control over power flow, and facilitate the integration of wind from different resource areas.

Smaller Footprint
Due to a higher efficiency, DC transmission lines can move more power in a given right of way, reducing the need for multiple rights of way and allowing for a smaller footprint.

How HVDC Works
Historically, the transfer of electricity between regions of the United States has been over high-voltage alternating current (AC) transmission lines, which means that both the voltage and the current on these lines move in a wave-like pattern along the lines. In North America, this change in direction occurs 60 times per second (defined as 60 hertz [Hz]).

Unlike an AC transmission line, the voltage and current on a direct current (DC) transmission line are not time varying, meaning they do not change direction as energy is transmitted. DC electricity is the constant, zero-frequency movement of electrons from an area of negative (-) charge to an area of positive (+) charge.

The first commercial electric power system built by Thomas Edison in the late nineteenth century carried DC electricity, but, given some early advantages, AC power eventually became the primary power system in the United States. Over the last 40+ years, DC projects have shown to offer significant electrical, economic, and environmental advantages when transporting power across long distances. Across the world, there has been a veritable boom in the use of DC to tap energy resources in remote areas and bring the energy to consumers in more heavily populated areas. Some of the first DC lines were built in the United States. Among those DC lines is the Pacific DC Intertie, which has been in operation for over 30 years. Operating at ±500 kilovolts, the line is capable of transmitting up to 3,100 megawatts of power.

Currently there are more than 20 DC transmission facilities in the United States and more than 35 across the North American grid, as indicated in the map below.

Michael Skelly wrote:
Statement by Michael Skelly
Founder and CEO
Grid United, LLC

Before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis May 20, 2021
Good morning Chair Castor, Ranking Member Graves, and members of the Select Committee, and thank
you for the opportunity to testify before you today.

My name is Michael Skelly and I am founder and CEO of Grid United, an early stage transmission
development company. I have spent the last 25 years developing a wide variety of energy projects. I
got involved in the US wind industry in the late 90’s, and helped put together thousands of megawatts
of new wind projects. In 2009 I started a company called Clean Line Energy which focused on interstate
power lines to move renewable energy around the country. We successfully permitted a three-state
high voltage, direct current transmission line. We sold off our projects several years ago to other
developers who are carrying them forward. Indeed, our Western Spirit project is now under
construction in New Mexico.

I live in Houston, Texas, which is fast becoming a national center for renewable energy development.
The combination of an entrepreneurial ethos, abundant wind and solar in Texas’ wide open spaces, an
open access grid, and policy innovation that began with then Governor George Bush and continued with
Governor Rick Perry’s push to expand Texas’ transmission system, has made Texas a leader in wind and
solar, and we are now witnessing an explosion in energy storage installations.

The recent outages of winter storm Uri are not the subject of today’s hearing, but must be mentioned.
As we all know, for four days in February, 4.5 million Texans became harshly aware of the grid and its
critical importance to everything we do. Importantly, Texas’ high voltage grid itself held up quite well
and few outages were attributed to transmission problems, but generators, including gas, nuclear, coal
and wind generators all had problems. No generation source covered itself in glory. One key lesson
from the Texas experience is that the transmission investments initiated by Governor Perry made a bad
situation less awful. Another key lesson is that networked systems perform better than isolated
systems. Personally, while I believe Texas’ electrical independence serves the state well and has
enabled us to build more generation quickly, we would be well served by more asynchronous DC ties to
neighboring states. Those interregional transmission ties would allow Texas to export its energy bounty
in times of surplus, help our neighbors when their supplies are tight, and enhance our reliability by
importing when we need it. All regions need to perform scenario planning for extreme weather, and if
they do, they will all find significant benefit to such interregional ties. Anything Congress can do that
simultaneously recognizes Texas’ independent streak while facilitating connections to adjacent control
areas will serve us all well.

In April of this year, I co-authored a study identifying 22 shovel-ready high voltage transmission projects
around the country that would begin construction in the near term if more workable transmission
policies, like the tax credit, were enacted. These projects would create over 1.2 million jobs across the
transmission, wind, and solar sectors; interconnect 60,000 MW of new renewable capacity; and increase
America’s solar and wind generation by 50% from current levels. A decade ago, we as a country did not
have such a fantastic opportunity set in front of us. However, in the ensuing years, both utilities and
independent developers have been sorting through the nettlesome siting, permitting, cost allocation
and grid connection challenges. I am firmly convinced that success will beget success in transmission,
and pushing these 22 projects over the top will invigorate efforts across the country – resulting in more
jobs, enhanced domestic supply chains, and big construction jobs, especially in our hard hit rural areas.
Aside from the economic benefits these projects embody, they also represent improved health
outcomes for residents of population centers living near fossil-burning power plants. Transmission plays
a role in replacing the carbon and other pollution in these population centers with renewable sources of
energy, thereby improving air quality for residents, and addressing long-standing environmental
injustices.
Before I talk about policy mechanisms that can help us improve reliability and get more clean energy on
the grid, I’d like to first address the critical importance of getting as much bang for the buck for the
investments we have made in the existing grid. Over the last decade, a number of exciting companies,
in some cases with public R&D support, have developed “Grid Enhancing Technologies”. These
companies harness the power of situational awareness and ultrafast processing of information to adjust
the throughput of existing wires, allowing them to get more power to market more efficiently. A
number of these technologies were not mature a decade ago, but now they are, and most of the
promising companies in this space are based here in the United States.

Forward thinking utilities like Xcel, MidAmerican and National Grid are deploying them already. FERC
Chair Richard Glick and his predecessor have taken an active interest in encouraging utilities and system
operators to adopt these technologies. Congress could play a critical role by appropriating funds to
share in the cost of their deployment – an approach that will save customers money, enable more
renewable power, and enhance reliability.

But better use of the existing grid alone won’t do the job alone.
We have largely solved the problem of producing wind and solar electricity in a cost effective fashion.
Now we need a better grid to pull it all together.

The Investment Tax Credit for Regionally Significant Electricity Transmission Lines, would be an essential
tool in developing American grid infrastructure. The proposed 30% tax credit would unlock new
merchant transmission lines as well as rate regulated ones, ultimately unlocking investment and
reducing costs to consumers.

As Congress considers an investment tax credit for transmission lines, it’s perhaps helpful to dive into
the mechanics of how transmission lines get paid for today and why we aren’t getting all the grid we
need to combat climate change. In this context, one must look at the two business models that support
the financing and construction of new transmission lines.

The great majority of transmission projects built in the US come about as a result of regional grid
planning exercises. System operators project growth in demand, make assumptions about plant
retirements, and project what new projects might get built. Individual transmission lines or groups of
lines are looked at on a “benefit to cost” ratio. If new lines will benefit the system, say on a 1.5 to 1.0
benefit to cost test, the system operators, working with state regulators, see to it that the lines get built.
If the projects don’t pass that test, they don’t get built. The rub lies in the fact that in almost all cases in
the US, carbon externalities are not factored into the grid planning process. Sometimes carbon is
included in scenario planning, but rarely is carbon used in the benefit to cost tests. Not surprisingly, this
means that we are not planning the grid around a carbon constrained world. While not a perfect policy
tool, an Investment Tax Credit can make up for this deficiency in the planning process. The ITC would
have the effect of lowering the denominator in the benefit to cost test. More lines would make it
through the planning process, and we will end up with a lower carbon grid.

The other type of transmission lines that get built are called “merchant” lines. These are typically built
outside the conventional planning process, and their economics rely on generators paying the
developers of merchant lines to deliver their power across long distances to get to market. An ITC will
help reduce the cost of the transmission service, and therefore more lines would get built, and more
renewable energy projects will follow. Importantly, merchant lines often provide reliability and other
services to the grid for which they do not get paid – despite the fact that such services can be extremely
valuable. An ITC will help make up for this market failure.

In both the merchant and regionally planned approach, the ITC is passed through to consumers.
While the tax credit is beneficial to unlocking these shovel-ready projects, the timeline for new
interregional transmission can take a decade to complete. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
has the authority to break the planning and cost allocation logjams that are preventing high voltage
interregional projects from being built. Among other reforms, the Commission should consider directing
regional planning authorities to evaluate future system needs based on a range of plausible scenarios,
including high renewable penetration; link the interconnection and transmission planning processes;
and consider non-transmission alternatives to costly local replacement projects that don’t move the needle on bulk power flows. Research has shown incorporating non-transmission such as Grid Enhancing Technologies can yield significant returns and unlock previously untapped capacity, efficiency, and resilience. High voltage transmission lines are the ties that bind regional grids and build resiliency. With renewed effort, we can enhance and modernize grid infrastructure, create the jobs of tomorrow, improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable, and reduce the costs of running one of the world’s most complicated technological wonders. We should take the forewarnings of recent regional grid failures as a national call to action to rebuild our infrastructure along an interregional framework with the tools, technology, and policy delivery mechanisms we have at our disposal today.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and am happy to answer any questions you may have

Miles Mathis - milesmathis.com/pyramid.html wrote:
In fact, we detect the charge field indirectly every time we detect the electric field or the magnetic field. The E/M field, as it is known now, cannot act as it does without a mechanical cause, and the charge field is that mechanical cause. The potentials and field lines cannot be caused by the electrons that are moving by them and within them: that would be a causa sui. The field lines and potentials can only be caused by a sub-field, and this sub-field is made up of what I have called B-photons. That is, by bombarding photons that are real and mechanical.

Beyond that, the charge field is detected indirectly in many unexplained phenomena and experiments. Many of the current mysteries of physics and the paranormal can be explained as detections of the charge field. The pyramid is just one of these.

In a nutshell, the pyramid focuses the charge field. But it does this in a strictly mechanical way. Mainly it does it by blocking the charge field emitted by the Earth. In this way, the size of the pyramid is very important. The greater area it covers, the greater area it blocks and focuses. The density of the pyramid is also of primary importance. The more dense the pyramid is, the more of the field it blocks.



And this is where we return to pressure. Because of the shape of the pyramid, the most blocking is done at the top. Think of the pyramid as a series of layers. Each rising layer blocks the field again. If we have ten layers, say, the lower edge of the pyramid blocks the field one time, but the uppermost layer blocks it ten times. If we give the field a pressure (and we must, since it is physical) then the least pressure is found at the top of the pyramid. The pinnacle of the pyramid is surrounded by areas of higher pressure. As we increase the distance from the pinnacle, the pressure continually increases, until we reach the areas unblocked by the pyramid, which will have “normal” pressure.

Now all we have to do is notice that electrons must move from areas of higher pressure to areas of lower pressure. They simply follow the charge wind. And I mean this literally, not figuratively. The electrons are physically carried along with the B-photons, by direct contact. Since the B-photons must move from areas of higher density to lower—based on nothing but statistics or entropy—the electrons must do so as well. In this way, electric potential is nothing but pressure or wind or entropy. The field lines are not lines of potential, they are lines of pressure, caused by simple bombardment. Our wind here is a very fine wind indeed, which is why we don’t feel it. But quantum particles do feel it, especially the smallest, free-est quantum particles—electrons.

What this means is that a pyramid is a very efficient power generator. Given a source of free electrons, the pyramid will both attract them and focus them. All you need is a method of moving that electricity from the pyramid to where it is needed, and you have a usable grid. In fact, the great pyramids are acting as generators right now; the electricity is simply not being used. It is escaping into the Earth and Sky. And they are acting as generators without any copper covering or copper top or anything else.* It is the shape and density of the pyramid that causes it to work, not the shell or the elemental makeup. We are not looking at “skeletons” of pyramids, as it has been suggested. The stones are not a frame to support metallic conductors. The stones themselves are working to focus the charge field, and they are doing it right now.

Local people and some cameramen know that pyramids attract lighting much more efficiently than other tall structures, more efficiently even than metal lightning rods. That this is not more widely known is due to two accidents of history. The famous pyramids are found in only a few places: in the most watched of these places (Egypt) it rarely rains1; the other places (Mexico and Peru) are very remote, and tourists stay away in bad weather.