Energy is life. The more energy we can use the higher our standard of living. This means that energy generation must keep up with our demand. In the United States, energy demand has been flat for the past couple of decades as we de-industrialized and focused more on a service economy. While the influx of intermittent renewables has been remarkable, it has not kept pace with current and planned baseload power plant retirements (primarily coal). Intermittent renewables are not a drop-in replacement for dispatchable baseload power. This reduces our energy capacity safety margin. So, even with no load growth, we are on a trajectory that leads to a less reliable grid. Unfortunately, that is the best-case scenario.
Load growth in the United States is now exploding. The energy transition, EV’s, heat pumps, the infrastructure bill (re-industrialization of the US) the IRA; all are putting increased demand on the electrical system that is increasingly less able to cope with it. Now we add, Artificial Intelligence. I just read this article:
Just what we need. More load put on a grid with declining dispatchable capacity. Maybe AI will be the tipping point. From Artificial Intelligence to Accelerated Impoverishment; due to a lack of energy for life.