At $1.127/lb of aluminum that only comes out to a bit less than $30,000 for the raw materials. That's astounding.

There's a lot more to a HVDC line than just the conductor, but ballpark estimate for a 1GW line is $1mln/km - scales accordingly with power.

Still, you could wrap the world around at the equator with this for a paltry $40bln. Now scale that 10x and you have yourself a practical global grid solution for what, $400bln? That's less than half the US military budget - absolutely doable if you get enough economies on board.

I think you forgot to multiply pounds / 2000 = tons

> not exceeding 1200m2 conductor cross section

Technically right but I think you mean 1200mm2 (a radius of approx 20mm)

Yes!

I actually had an autocorrect suggestion for "1200m2" in there for some reason.