[FuriouslyAdrift]

Minnesota has 8 hydro plants already... in addition to 2 nuclear plants and a host of coal, gas, solar, wind, etc.

They generate 57 Twh right now. That's about 10% of the current production of the entire nation of Canada just for one US state.

I think you are greatly underestimating the scale of the United States compared to Canada.

[pedrocr]

Canada isn't small, it produces almost 10x the electrical energy that Minnesota does. But I wasn't even giving it as an example of total capacity just of a neighbor that has a bunch of hydro that can be useful in some moments. And it works both ways too. When Minnesota has excess wind Canada can benefit. The same exercise needs to be modelled with all demand and capacity within viable transmission range. And with the advancements in HVDC that range keeps increasing.

[mcosta]

Canada is big but it is mostly empty. Canada population is 40M.