Will Wade, for Bloomberg;
Something strange is happening with utilities.
For decades, electricity usage in the US has been mostly flat. Even with more people starting to use more power for more things, much of that has been offset as buildings, factories and appliances become more efficient.
But suddenly that’s changing, and the industry isn’t ready. Big tech companies need lots of electricity, for data centers and especially for artificial intelligence. Homes are using more electricity for heating and cooling. Factories need more electricity to shift away from fossil fuels.
And when faced with this sudden increase of load on the power grid, utilities are going to rely heavily on natural gas, and even coal.
“It will be a struggle to meet load growth,” said Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, a Washington-based research company that’s been tracking this trend. He expects US demand to for electricity to climb almost 16% over the next five years, more than triple his estimate from a year ago. Utilities are expecting customers to need as much as 128 gigawatts of new capacity in 2029.
That’s really going to disrupt the green transition. Power providers that have made pledges to cut back or eliminate carbon emissions are now starting to reverse course. Duke Energy Corp. plans to extend the life of its largest coal-fired power plant, which would push aside its goal to exit coal by 2035. Duke has said that its resource plans are not final decisions and are revised regularly.
FirstEnergy also will operate a pair of coal plants, stepping back from an earlier pledge to stop using the fuel by 2030. And energy companies in the US are planning new gas plants at the fastest pace in years.
And all of that is before Donald Trump returns to the White House next month. The president-elect is well-known for his support of fossil fuels and his skepticism of climate policies.
Maybe Canadians will be able to buy coal by the ton?
If you live in Alberta, you may still be able to
https://www.allcanadianheaters.com/coal/
nuclear.
ferfcuksake harness the atom.
my understanding new designs have come up with one that failsafes to a status that halts the reaction somehow.
meanwhile every time a greenie pipes up the ‘narrative’ you punch them in the face.
hard.
very very hard.
Maybe the AI people can just build themselves some wind and solar farms to power their AI datacenters without being attached to the grid. After all they were big promoters of the misnamed “renewables”
Better we burn coal than let the lights go out.
Or, heaven forbid, home body snivel servants not being able to access their “cloud”, because both Canada and the US have the same issue with their Federal Useless Eaters.
Environmentalists are not known for their scientific, engineering, and economic prowess. Rather they are often the most ignorant and naive among us when it comes to technical issues. They think their good intentions will produce good results.
This is what happens when government policy is driven by such people. They end up shooting themselves and everyone else in the foot.
They won’t suffer. We will suffer.
Cheapest Electricity Ever.
Every sane person knew the phase-out of fossil fuels and phase-in of renewables was never going to work. The question that remains is how much utilities are going to increase electricity prices for doing what they should have been doing all along. Our utility company routinely asks for dramatic price increases to finance the purchase of useless but virtuous renewable infrastructure that generates little to no power.
Trump takes office January 2025 for 4 years. His successor will take office January 2029 which gives that person 1 year to reach the goal of Net Zero by 2030. Should be an interesting year because we only have 11 years to save the planet starting 7 years ago.
Coal is green. Maybe they will open the mines in Cape Breton again instead of importing it from PA to power the electrical generating plants there.