This is a WaPo article, so no mention of the harm that Lefty policies have done to the grid and to America's electric generation capacity over the past decades, but otherwise a straight non-political look at the challenges we have with electric generation and distribution, especially considering the epic power loads new tech is causing, and some of the ways big electric users (data centers, etc) are responding to their difficulties in getting as much reliable power as they need.
Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.
In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades.
Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to serve all the new data centers planned and under construction. Texas, where electricity shortages are already routine on hot summer days, faces the same dilemma.
(more follows -- plenty of detail for those interested in the topic)
The power lines are already in trouble. They are pushing so much power through them that they get hot and sag. Often breaking one or more strands.
17, eh?
It just shows up EVERYWHERE, doesn't it?
Lucky bitcoin mining doesn't hurt the environment like cow farts....... /s
Not to mention the power it takes to generate Bitcoin.