Posted on 04/06/2024 5:39:05 PM PDT by John W
Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.
In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades.
Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to serve all the new data centers planned and under construction. Texas, where electricity shortages are already routine on hot summer days, faces the same dilemma.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
The solution - unicorn farts
Yes, that too.
Becoming more like South Africa by the day.
Who could have ever seen this coming.🙄
It’s one reason they’re building so many around DC. Bitch and argue all you like, but when there are power or parts (transformer) shortages, this area’s grid will get top priority and be backed up by the military.
Current;y North Korea is running a NOrth South Satellite above the North America that they are waiting for the right moment to explode. The Super EMP as they call it will send the US back into the 1600s. How fun...
But those EVs, the ones that run on wind & solar power, will save the day!
Just leave it outside all day to charge, even drive it around a bit, then bring it in the Garage at night to run the house.
Easy-Peasy! What could be better than that?
Unexpected.
The nation's largest grid operator is warning it may face a major coming shortfall in electric generating capacity as utilities retire more and more traditional fossil fuel power plants.
It's a challenge facing grid operators across the country as power generators mothball coal and natural gas-fired plants for various reasons, such as reducing high maintenance and regulatory compliance costs or cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
. . .
PJM Interconnection, which manages grid operations across 13 states and the District of Columbia, published new analysis Friday showing retirements outpacing new additions in the coming years that could leave its service area short of thousands of megawatts of capacity by 2030.
"Retirements are at risk of outpacing the construction of new resources, due to a combination of industry forces, including siting and supply chain, whose long-term impacts are not fully known," it said in its report.
PJM said this shortfall is on track due to a "potential timing mismatch" between retirements, growing electricity demand, and the pace of new generation coming online.
Nearly 40,000 megawatts, or 40 gigawatts, of generating capacity in PJM is forecast to retire by 2030, 90% of which is coal and natural gas.
PJM's "low entry scenario" envisions an addition of just over 15,000 megawatts over the same period.
Under its high entry scenario, capacity additions through 2030 would be twice that at 30,000 megawatts, still short of making up for retired capacity.
And grossly inadequate Internet connectivity.
Small modular nuclear reactors of several types are already under development and deployment. Dow Chemical is one stated soon to be user (Dow uses huge amounts of electricity to make chlorine, caustic, and magnesium.
Ya think 20+ million unexpected users could be part of it?.
Guess this explains why Biden didn’t build any EV charging stations.
“Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power”
gosh, who could have ever possibly predicted that!
from 2022
The Digiconomist's Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index estimated that one bitcoin transaction takes 1,449 kWh to complete, or the equivalent of approximately 50 days of power for the average US household.
To put that into money terms, the average cost per kWh in the US is close to 12 cents. That means a bitcoin transaction would generate approximately an energy bill of $173.
Bitcoin mining uses around as much energy as Argentina, according to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, and at that annualized level of 131.26 terawatt-hours, crypto mining would be in the top 30 of countries based on energy consumption.
From 2022 to now the number of Bitcoin mining farms has at least doubled, if not tripled….or more.
That’s modern America — decades late and a zillion kilowatts short. Guess I’ll put that EV purchase on hold. /s
And new nuclear plants. It should be a National Security issue and the courts (and the EPA and other TLAs) prohibited from having any say in the build process.
The left are gettign their excuses for brownouts and blackouts ready now for when the increased demands of mandated electric vehicles, electric farm tools, electric everything strain to the breaking point the national electric grid- they will claim that ‘too many people use the internet, creating too much demand’
The corrupt in government create the problems then warn everyone of the terrible consequences of their actions.
If they build an energy-hogging ‘Data Center’ in your state, they need to put a windmill on the roof.
That will take care of all of their power needs! Duh!
*SMIRK*
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