OK - who pays for this?

All this talk about alt.energy is fun until someone has to pay for it.
From OilPrice:

The U.S. Needs To Double The Size Of Its Energy Grid

• • While the U.S. clean energy sector is booming, the country’s energy grid will need to expand if it is to get the new energy supply to demand centers around the country.
  • According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the country will need 47,300 gigawatt-miles of new power lines by 2035, amounting to a 57% expansion of the existing grid.
  • As well as expanding the grid the existing grid needs to be improved, two tasks that will require a revamp of the current system of reviewing and approving energy grid projects.

In order to keep up with the expansion of renewable energy production capacity, the United States will have to more than double the current size of the electric grid. Stimulus from both the public and private sectors are hitting their intended mark, and the clean energy sector is booming. However, much of the potential environmental benefits of electrification will be completely wasted if we don’t have the power lines and grid capacity to transmit that power from where it's being produced to where the demand is concentrated.

Yeah - fun to talk about but the true cost is never talked about.  Not just building out the grid, we also need to include the cost of the local substations and switches.

Nuclear is the way - specifically, Thorium reactors.  All else is smoke and mirrors and pixy-dust.