Environment
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
2 days agoAI's Power Needs Will Destroy the Renewable Energy Revolution
Solar power is becoming cheaper than fossil fuels, driving renewables to dominate new electricity generation globally.
From this remote landscape of light and sand, in the Ningxia Autonomous Region, a power line stretches across mountains, plateaus and valleys to reach Hengyang, in the industrial heart of Hunan Province in the south. Along more than 1,000 miles of cables and steel towers flows part of the electricity that keeps the country running: the ultra-high voltage (UHV) infrastructure that China is using to protect its grid from blackouts and redraw its energy map in the midst of its race toward ecological transition.
There's a clear tension between developed and emerging economies regarding how to achieve the energy transition. While Europe insists that the time has come to accelerate the pace, Asia, Latin America and Africa are experiencing lags in economic growth, which hinder the monumental leap toward wind or solar generation. In this debate, some parties propose natural gas as a transitional fuel: it pollutes less than other fossil fuels, it's more accessible, and it's seen as a first step in the direction of renewable energy.