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notTooFarGone 4 hours ago

With how backwards US policy is - this will be the major factor in the future.

Energy heavy use cases with little to no energy costs will lap western industries.

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yogthos 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Indeed, data centres for AI is a prime example of this where American grid is already starting to hit capacity.

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mekdoonggi 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

True, though I think it's a little more nuanced. There's still capacity, but the AI boom is unearthing all the "cheap" power places in the grid and buying them up.

In order to keep growing, the US power grid is going to need big, coordinated projects. Solar, wind, transmission lines, and batteries.

I think with political interest from Dems who like renewables, and big business who need energy, there's will in the US to do it, but of course it's the US, so we'll do the right thing after every possible alternative has been exhausted.

	▲	yogthos 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Even as it stands things are kinda grim. There's around 30% spare capacity, but you also need that for spikes like increased usage during events like heatwaves. You never want to saturate energy capacity completely. I agree that eventually there's going to be no choice but to start investing in renewables. That's going to be the only way to meet the demand, and renewables are already becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. But it is going to take time. Building stuff in the physical world takes years, and that requires sustained commitment at the political level.

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jeffbee 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

America basically did not add any net generating capacity in the first two decades of this century, instead treading water with repowering and efficiency. This was a mistake and now that we could use the energy everyone is acting like it's impossible to expand the grid at the same rate we expanded it in the 1980s.

In many ways this mirrors the way America walked into the housing crisis with its eyes closed.

	▲	dalyons 12 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t understand how it could have realistically been different. In say 2001 how can you possibly make the case for very expensive grid expansion for future loads that haven’t been invented yet?