From a comment on JHAT #123 about geothermal heat pumps
@Donald McCarthy
Demand is projected accurately by the utilities and the grid is upgraded to take care of the demand. The problem is that the growth is being offset by the retirement of older power plants that cost more than renewables. What must be done is to get rid of each coal plant and replace it with twice as much renewables plus storage. If we don’t, then the renewables will never be able to keep up with growth. The governments must force the utilities to plan for the future. Basically it’s that the utilities are trying to get by with as little costs as possible and cutting corners — we’ll worry about the future later (stoopid lack of planning). One day the governments will say you can’t buy any more fossil fuel cars or use fossil fuels to heat. Then the electric grid will have a bunch of loads that it didn’t have before.
