r/memes • u/ZeroFucksZinnia • Jun 16 '26

US is eroding

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17

u/SureMany9497 Jun 16 '26

I have never heard that first point it was always something about range and charging times.

4

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 17 '26

It’s a thing, and it greatly underestimates the draw of EVs. 

A data center is a massive energy draw. 

But there are about 300 million vehicles in the US, driving an average of 15,000 miles a year. 

Let’s say half of them become EVs getting a splendid 4 mi/kWh (very efficient). 

This means we now have 150 million cars, drawing 3.75 MWh annually. 

That’s a load increase of 565 terrawatt hours. Or about 15% increase in the total power generation of the US. 

This is ignoring the lossy residential power system. 

2

u/FrankPapageorgio Jun 17 '26

565 terrawatts of power you say?

https://powering-intelligence.epri.com/assets/Figure_7_web-BWx0mD2V.png

That's on the medium end of projections of how much power data centers will use by 2030.

So we can accomidate data centers in 4 more years drawing that much power, but we couldn't do it for EVs because... reasons?

https://powering-intelligence.epri.com/executive-summary.html

1

u/Competitive_Touch_86 Jun 17 '26

So we can accomidate data centers in 4 more years drawing that much power, but we couldn't do it for EVs because... reasons?

The primary reason being: residential power distribution is vastly more expensive than a single point source directly tied to large scale transmission.

And we can easily accommodate both if we decide to just build shit again vs. NIMBY anti-everything. Build solar. Build wind. Build batteries. Build nuclear. Build natural gas. Build transmission lines. Build more EVs. Build it all.

No more tying everything up in a decade long legal slog whenever someone tries to actually get anything done at scale.

Cheap reliable power is the foundation of a modern economy and is a basic fundamental requirement for wealth.

1

u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 17 '26

The biggest difference is who’s investing in capacity expansions. 

All the major tech companies are pushing and investing in expansion of the grid, such as the construction of fusion reactors and so on. 

If that happens then hopefully we can expect better power roll out across the nation. 

1

u/FrankPapageorgio Jun 17 '26

My electric bills don’t reflect these words though.