Electricity, As the Crow Flies

We have an idiom in the English language that references: "as the crow flies."  It is intended to mean a straight-line route, the shortest between two points, even though crows do not always fly in straight lines (the same as any other bird). So, now I can state that 13.5 miles (22 km) away, as the crow flies, from where I am now living is a nuclear power plant. That may sound rather frightening to some, but in the 45 years it has been in operation, there have been no incidents, and the public has been assured that copious protocols exist for any foreseeable event.

In order to get the electrical power to the customers, transmission lines had to be strung throughout the area. After much careful planning, swaths of land were cleared through the countryside in such a way as to cause minimal impact to the environment and the landowners. The lines were strung straight, again as the crow flies, to sub-stations around the area. Driving about, one only encounters such a swath occasionally, and most of them do not appear terribly intrusive to the landscape.

The transmission lines only occupy a very small percentage of the land. Because of the rural nature of those counties, most of the transmission lines are hidden by trees and mountains until one happens to drive a road that crosses paths with the lines, as in the above photo. They can be seen rather easily in aerial photographs, though, such as the following screenshot from Bing Maps:

The presence of these transmission lines gives us rather reliable electrical power in the area, which is a huge benefit, and the costs are lower than in some other areas of the country. Only occasionally do the lines and their towers interfere with the scenic beauty of the area, such as in the following photo. Just driving a minute or two away from this spot, and the power lines & towers are no longer visible.

One more shot at the same location as the above photo, but looking in a different direction...

The photo below shows one of the sub-stations to which these heavy-duty lines connect. The circuitry and equipment in them steps-down the electrical power to a safe level for transmission atop regular creosote poles along the roadsides and into homes and businesses.

Lastly, here is a meme I made from a shot of wires/cables on poles that run along the roadsides to reach homes & businesses. The cables up there are a mixture of electrical, telephone, and broadband cables.