Environment & Energy

using underground cables.

I notice that the statistic on life expectancy for the two formats were generated by Southern California Edison. Does this apply then only to southern Caifornia, or across the country. The paper does say "life span estimates of both may vary," so this hardly seems conclusive.

And while the paper says line breaks are easier to fix on overhead cables, I don't see any comparison of the frequency of line breaks for overhead vs. uinderground. If an underground line break happens once in two decades, while overhead cables in the same area need to be repaired once a year, it would seem to bear on the costs of one versus the other. 

But I'll admit I'm not an expert on this. I just know that there seems to be a stark difference in how power cables are laid--or strung--in western Europe as opposed to the US.