> Today, renewable energy makes up just over 20 percent of the US electricity mix. A five-year wait time isn’t going to cut it if the Biden administration wants to reach its goal of achieving a 100 percent clean power grid by 2035. Added capacity would also come in handy during sweltering heatwaves like those of this summer, when electricity demand spikes for air conditioning. Two of the nation’s largest grid operators issued alerts about potential energy shortages for that reason this week.
From "Computer simulation provides 4k scenarios for a climate turnaround" (2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36578412 :
> Highlights:
> • Probabilistic assessment of 4000 decarbonisation pathways with the ETSAP-TIAM.
> • Delaying the action for the 2 °C target costs similar to acting now for the 1.5 °C.
> • Demand electrification is higher in 2050 than today in all model runs.
> • Hydrogen is used in 99% of the model runs to meet the 1.5 °C target.
> As it is now, it takes an average of five years for a new energy project to connect to the grid. There’s a huge backlog of more than 2,000 gigawatts of clean energy generation and storage that’s just waiting in line for approval. That’s about as much capacity as the nation’s existing power plants have for generating electricity today.
> [...] To clear the backlog, the new federal rule will require grid managers to assess projects in clusters instead of one at a time. They’ll also face firm deadlines and penalties for failing to finish interconnection studies on time. The new rule prioritizes projects that are the farthest along in development and also includes new requirements for project developers, like financial deposits to discourage them from proposing projects that might not pull through.