>> Roughly double your standard 13A cable would do...  Look at the cable 
>> going to the starter motor on your car, that's usually 100A or so.
>
> 1. A car runs on 12V electrics, not 250V. Does that make a difference?

No, the wire has to be the right thickness for the *current*, voltage 
doesn't make any difference to its current carrying capability.  That's why 
the power grid is at a stupidly high voltage, so that current is lower (for 
the same power) and hence the cables can be thinner and less power wasted by 
heat.

> 2. Is maximum load proportional to diameter or cross section area? (The 
> latter is quadratically propertional to diameter.)

Cross-sectional area.  IIRC the definition of resistance is something like 
material_resistivity*length/x-sec_area.  If the resistance of a cable is too 
high, then it will get too hot and melt.  Heat dissipated is I^2*R...

> Apparently the planners have access to an A0 printer. I don't even want to 
> imagine what that must cost... ;-)

Not *that* much, they just print on a roll of paper and work like an 
inkjet - just a bit wider :-)

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