Globally, the infrastructure of the electric grid can't support the CURRENT load reliably and is already experiencing major outages with  weather conditions that are just moderately stressful.  A heat wave or a Cat 1 hurricane is all it takes to knock out power for millions of people.  To this already fragile and unstable system the current plan is to double or even triple the load in the next decade.  Whether they can even build enough power plants to supply that much power is questionable, but beyond that there's no coherent plan to get them all connected to the grid to supply the power.

Beyond that, while adding the necessary connections must be done, there is no plan to improve all the municipal grids to handle the bigger loads and be more resilient to weather disruptions.  Houston is a great example.  More power plants wouldn't get electricity to the customers when all the wires are down.  For Houston and many other coastal cities vulnerable to hurricanes, they need to bury the cables, a very expensive, time consuming and labor intensive job.  Who is going to finance this build out?  What will the cost of power be for the customers?  Will they be able to afford to run the A/C essential to being able to live in that environment?

The Blackouts of the Olduvai Hypothesis are already here.



https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/world-power-grids-fail-due-to-abnormal-heat-wave/ar-BB1q0bKb

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-15/climate-change-leaves-world-s-electricity-networks-unable-to-cope

RE

Burn Baby, Burn

Jevon strikes again!

Robert Rapier: There Is No Energy Transition; Fossil Fuels and Coal Hit New Records

RE

I downloaded it:

Classically Jevon's is only about coal, we know it can be extended to a basket of energies.  Use of any kind of energy will in the absence of limiting restraint increase if any energy becomes more efficient to use.  The inter-dependencies between energy supplies is huge.  A fact not appreciated.  Energy sources do not replace each other.  The truth is they reinforce each other.  Use of one increases the use of others through links that are both physical and through links that result exclusively from human nature.

Most people will regard what I just wrote a blasphemy.

* Like most of the financial podcasts this one is a top notch source of information.  Deep analysis in financial podcasts in general is shallow, but this discussion is good.  It is about emphasis attention, and knowledge. Where it is your attention pointed. 

Find deep analysis in the Diner.