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Yeah overhead on a strong tower is probably the best place for them. Underground they're way more likely to get hit accidentally and if the shielding failed it'd be impossible to tell where the danger was from the surface without specialized equipment.

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underground is more resilient to damage but harder to do maintenance and actually much more expensive at the distribution level

It would also increase the cost a lot due to the digging and actually requiring insulation that will hold up where the overhead lines are bare aluminum insulated by air.

Exactly. It's mostly cost that keeps underground transmission lines limited to very specific situations. I forget the exact figure, but underground transmission is something like 20x the cost of above ground.

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