Energy reduction is basically the best possible option. It's why insulating houses (in both hot and cold climates) is possibly one of the most effective green i

Energy reduction is basically the best possible option. It's why insulating houses (in both hot and cold climates) is possibly one of the most effective green initiatives, since so much energy goes into heating. Even with a pure renewables grid where you have huge excess of energy at certain times of day and year you will have bottlenecks due to inflexible demands when supply is at the lowest and that will determine how much renewables actually need building (and mining is suprisingly inflexible: when capital costs are as large a portion of the total costs as they are, miners will keep mining even with quite high spikes in energy prices).