system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How much would energy costs go up if the US got all its energy from renewables, using existing technology?

Let's say we have five years to build new infrastructure. How much would it cost to power the country at our current standard of living? Let's take into account issues not just of energy generation, but also of transport and storage.
gpt
First, bear in mind, the question is huge.  To answer, we'd have to choose a plan for how to accomplish this.  The main choices we'd have to make are:

* How to generate electricity for the grid.
* How to store non-baseload power.
* How to power vehicles.
* Whether to change how people commute.  Cars? Scooters? Trains?
* Whether to redesign cities to make commuting less necessary.

These questions have multiple possible answers, and which answers you choose greatly affects the overall cost.

The second thing to keep in mind is: five years is nuts.  You're talking about possibly replacing all our cars and power plants, you're talking about maybe replacing gas stations with electric stations, you're talking about building electricity storage reservoirs, and much more - this is just plain not going to happen in five years.

Indeed, the cost is mostly going to be proportional to how fast you try to do it.  Fir example, if you allow a gradual transition to electric cars, then people can just buy the new cars as their old cars wear out.  The cost is basically just the cost of replacement, which you'd be paying anyway.  But if you want to do it in five years, you'd have to throw out a whole bunch of perfectly good gas cars.