US to modernize electrical grid – for clean energy and fewer outages | Hacker News Reader

US to modernize electrical grid – for clean energy and fewer outages

cnn.com

30 pointsthunderbong7 comments

It mentions AI as a big ticket item in electrical demand. Could just be for clicks, but if AI and crypto aren't good for anything else, if it convinces the government to make our electrical grid more robust, I guess I'll call it a win. A very expensive and arguably wasteful win, but a win nonetheless.

All the AI demand software s today isn’t AI, it’s just some mathematics and basic algorithms, but it’s better than nothing which is what’s there today mostly.

Source: I work in this area.

Also: I’m looking for work!

Unfortunately the incentives are very much against a robust modern decentralized grid.

Yeah, "AI" is everywhere these days, and I try to give it benefit of doubt - if they want a Generative/LLM AI to build their designs and operational manuals or answer emergency questions, maybe not; if it's a more traditional 'AI' and just means automatically adapt to conditions, probably yes? As long as there exist backups and manual controls? (not because of fear of AI gaining sentience and killing us, just for unforseen or emergency circumstances)

Ah the "infrastructure week" meme.

Isn't localized solar on every house and apartment complex the real answer?

Charge your own electric car as massive portable battery pack and transmission-line "buffer".

Community solar has better economies of scale than rooftop solar.

Installing on the roof is a pain in the ass, and ties your roof replacement schedule to solar.

Basically small-ish 1-5MW solar farms on former brownfield sites is the future. Large commercial warehouses that can support solar on the roof are also okay.

This is campaign fodder. There is no financing or legislation behind it.

It sounds a bit like the administration is making phone calls and requesting companies to spend big.

If the administration can make the states spend big that would be a key step. However, that would require financing being legislated at the state level.

One intersting bit is the bit of propaganda here:

"" The three-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently voted to approve a new rule that will bring major reforms to the nation’s aging electrical grid. It will compel utilities and grid operators to proactively plan to build regional electrical transmission and is a step toward solving the problem of vast amounts of clean energy being stuck in a backlog, unable to get on a grid too small to handle it. ""

That is truly amazing what awesome work they have done and so easily.

What is missing appears to be a link to this marvel of achievement.

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