The energy you use to brew your coffee, power your laptop, or watch TV was generated milliseconds ago through one (or a combination) of various sources—including coal, natural gas, wind, solar, and nuclear—and delivered to you through the engineering marvel known as the U.S. electric grid. And since the grid’s humble beginnings in the late 19th century, it’s grown into the largest machine in the world capable of powering hundreds of millions of homes.

But the era of climate change—as is true with many other facets of modern life—is challenging the grid in unprecedented ways. Transitioning to green energy sources is a delicate balance, and if you shut down the use of traditional fossil fuels without a plan to replace them, then shortages become unavoidable. Additionally, over the course of the last several years, the power grid has acquired a new and extremely heavy burden: AI data centers.

Those challenges, it seems, may be about to make themselves extremely well-known. According to a recent report from the United States Department of Energy (DOE), if nothing changes in the existing plan to generate and supply power to our grid, our risk of power outage will be 100 times higher by 2030 (which is now just four years away).

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    Transitioning to green energy sources is a delicate balance, and if you shut down the use of traditional fossil fuels without a plan to replace them, then shortages become unavoidable.

    Planning is for Communists. We must put our faith in the invisible hand of the free market. The hand knows all. Trust in the hand. Amen.

  • PagPag@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    My decision to take my property 100% off grid (last year) is getting better and better as this shit show continues.

  • Chaotic_Altruist@lemmy.zip
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    16 days ago

    This comes from the DOE and it’s trying to justify burning more coal and using less renewable energy cause making the shift might not be easy and could leave intermittent power shortages so we should justify burning coal until we all die instead. Not sure why anyone believes this crap.

    Businesses and AI are over consuming energy, and doubling down on fossil fuels will not fix the problem.

  • etchinghillside@reddthat.com
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    16 days ago

    The energy you use to brew your coffee, power your laptop, or watch TV

    All of these will be subscription only services so it doesn’t matter.

    • FerretyFever0@fedia.io
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      16 days ago

      Hey, at least there’s always old shit. Until all of that breaks. Then we’re fucked. Actually, we’re already fucked.