Here are some useful stats:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epates.html
2005 data
Net Generation (thousand megawatt hours)
Nuclear: 781,986
All Energy Sources: 4,054,688
Net summer generating capacity (megawatts):
Nuclear: 99,988
. . .
Pumped storage: 21,347 [Not really an energy source!]
. . .
All energy sources: 978,020
Demand, Capacity Resources, and Capacity Margins - Summer
Net internal demand: 746,470
Capacity Margins (percent): 15.4
My analysis: Nuclear is 10% of capacity but it generates 19% of
electricity. As I have pointed out before, it is baseline generation.
It is cheapest per KWH when used full-time. Petroleum generators are
the opposite. They only turn on Petroleum generators when they need
them, at peak hours. Petroleum is 6% of capacity but it produces 3%
of Net generation.
Earlier, I wrote: "There are about 105 nukes with 102 GW net winter
capacity, and they are usually accounted as 20% of U.S. capacity, so
that's ~510 GW." That's wrong. I forgot that nukes run twice as much
as most generators. I should have said: "10% of U.S. capacity." You
can see from these stats and various graphs that much of the U.S.
generator capacity is idle, most hours of the day. A huge buffer made
from PHEV would greatly reduce the need for peak generator capacity.
"Other renewable" capacity has increased 6 GW since 1994. Coal has
increased 2 GW, and Natural gas has increased 190 GW -- in case you
are wondering why your gas heating bill has gone through the roof.
National leaders and the administration are too stupid to realize
that this kind of growth is unsustainable, but you'd think power
company officials would know it.
The U.S. is presently installing ~1 GW of wind (actual, not
nameplate) per year. We could have easily installed 10 times that
amount per annum, starting 11 years ago. By now that would amount to
~110 GW. That would be half of the new Natural Gas capacity, or
one-third of the total coal capacity (313 GW) -- take your pick.
People who say we cannot reduce coal consumption have no idea what
they are talking about!
In 20 years, we could build 100 new nukes and 200 GW of wind, enough
to close down every damn coal generator. The existing network could
accommodate 200 GW of intermittent wind power. Throw in another 200
GW of solar-thermal in the southwest (which is NOT intermittent to
the extent wind is) and we could close down down some of the natural
gas capacity, and at the same time convert most cars to PHEV and
reduce oil imports to zero. This would cost a fraction of the War For
Oil (which dares not speak its name).
- Jed
