Keeping the sparks flying: pylons for the future?

Henry Rummins

26 May 2011

As blots on the landscape go, they could be worse - but there's a fair amount of agreement they could be better. They form the grey arteries that criss-cross our land - transporting our 21st century lifeblood, electricity.

Pylons.

The original design is nearly a hundred years old - and in recognition that perhaps the design could do with a spruce-up, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has launched a competition to search for a design fit for the 21st rather than the 20th century.

Some of the best areas for generating green energy - from wind turbines or wave power, for example - are in isolated areas or offshore. Picturesque wilderness, in other words - and usually a long way from where energy is used, to boot.

My campaigner colleagues reckon that in the most sensitive landscapes power cables should be buried - but there will always be areas where having cables above ground makes more sense.

I can't help thinking this is all a good reason for us to generate our electricity closer to home - less need for huge pylons if we're making electricity just outside the front door.

Personally I can't think of anything better than building a miniature National Grid in my lounge linking solar panels to my microwave.

But in the meantime, keeping my lights on through drawing on power from a wind turbine off the coast is just the ticket.

And having some exciting and jazzy new pylons supplying it would be a breath of fresh air - as long as the National Grid makes scale models for me to use at home.

Henry Rummins,  Communications & Media Officer