America’s Electricity Famine

One of the open issues regarding the growing need for electricity in America is whether certain parts of the country will face such significant demand problems that they will experience blackouts or rolling brownouts. The answer is almost certainly “yes.”

The people at the Breakthrough Institute recently reported, “There’s a good chance that solar and wind aren’t going to rescue us. Leaving aside their dismal inability to time production—solar is like the guest who shows up for cocktails at noon, and wind drops in on a schedule all its own—they are often unwelcome as neighbors.” Add this problem to a long list. One is that the grid cannot easily be linked to new sources of energy, even if these are very promising. Wind energy does not work well in cold weather. Nuclear energy is heading in the wrong direction (although it appears that installations will start to grow).

New York Black Out

The weak points in the national energy infrastructure are primarily located in New England and New York. New York City has had three major city-wide blackouts in the last 50 years. Few people are defending the current grid as strong enough to avoid that in the future. The entire grid has collapsed across much of Texas.

Although it is repeated too often, AI server farms will drive electricity needs up exponentially. It would be a dream to think that this challenge could be solved under current circumstances. It may not be solvable at all.

“Famine” is the right word. Parts of the US may go without electricity periodically, and there is nothing that can be done.

More from ClimateCrisis 247

• Your Electricity Bill Is About To Jump 50%
• Is Meta America’s Greenest Company?
• Natural Gas To Revolutionize AI Data Centers
• AI Energy Use Is Dirty