The Largest Machine Ever Built

The science

It has been said that the largest machine ever built is the electrical grid – a single, continent-spanning network that must balance supply and demand in real time, every second of every day. This map draws the high-voltage transmission lines that form its backbone, using data from OpenStreetMap's global community of contributors.

The grid is also central to the climate transition: how we generate electricity, and how we move it from producers to consumers, shapes the world's greenhouse gas emissions more than almost anything else.

How we turned it into a print

We rendered the high-voltage lines alone, and the shape of industrial civilization appears – dense webs across Europe, North America, India and China, thinning to isolated threads elsewhere. It is an unusual, engineer's-eye view of the planet, and a favorite among people who work in energy.

The print

From our Minimal collection, The World as Power Lines is printed on premium paper in 70x50 cm and 100x70 cm. Data source: OpenStreetMap.