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If solar continues to plummet in cost we may see distributed industry in rural areas, to take advantage of energy that is essentially stranded by transmission c

• pjc50 6mo ago
  Well, unless all the planned datacentres get built, using more electricity than some small countries.
  • pfdietz 6mo ago
    The blockage of connecting those to the grid will encourage self-generation, which will mean putting them off in the boondocks where land is cheap. Taking that to the logical limit is where space data centers come from. I think we're going to see a repurposing of remote coal-fired plants with renewable stored heat. The Four Corners plant, perhaps? It's supposed to stop operating in 2031, I believe.
• voakbasda 6mo ago
  In the US, this will never happen due to NIMBY zoning laws.
  • toast0 6mo ago
    Most rural areas have pretty permissive zoning. But also, other than Texas, I don't hear about a lot of regional over production. There's pretty good interconnection within and between the two major grids.
    • pfdietz 6mo ago
      One reason you don't see overproduction is it's hard to get connected to grids. Local self-generation eliminates that roadblock. I think we're going to see increasing energy autarky in rural regions as solar gets cheaper. Assuming ultra low cost thermal storage becomes a thing, there's going to be a market for small externally heated engines to recover that heat as power. That (+ batteries) will enable complete off-grid operation with PV at small (maybe 100 kW) commercial scale and larger.