America is becoming increasingly electric, and will continue to do so in the future. With its current production levels, the United States will not be able to meet future power demand. In order to avoid major consequences, the United States will need to update its energy infrastructure and explore alternative sources of electricity.
If current trends continue, power demand in the United States will be 50% higher in the next 25 years. We will need at least 5,178 terawatt hours of energy in 2050 to keep up with that demand. For scale, 1 terawatt hour can power the internet for around 15 days.
Energy is critical to the healthy functioning of American society. If demand isn’t met, severe consequences follow. For example, communication networks could be shut down, make it difficult to connect with loved ones or access important information. Banking systems would also be impacted, resulting in limited access to point-of-sale kiosks or credit card scanners.
Challenges lay ahead as the United States looks for ways to improve energy production. The electrical grid is massive, and replacing the entire grid would cost nearly $5 trillion. To make things even more complicated, equipment prices continue to increase; transformers have nearly doubled in price since 2019.
However, there is still time. The United States government aims to quadruple nuclear energy by 2050, which would help boost production. Speeding up interconnection queues and improving lead times and quality for important equipment can also help meet future demand. With these changes, the United States strives to meet future demand and avoid major consequences.
Source: ELSCO