Energy efficiency coupled with the use of coal is the best answer to meet the energy needs for today and the next couple of decades. It is easy to be critical and not actually try to be part of the solution. Does your house have the most efficient heat and air conditioning? Are all the lamps in your house utilize leds? Are you driving a vehicle that gets 50+ MPG? Have you relocated your residence so that you are walking distance of work/school/church? Point is we could all do better at using our resources better - and it isn't all up to "the other guy" or the electric utilities. Can we do better ? - of course. Replacing older heat/air units with higher efficiency units , utilizing more fluorescent lamps and led lights, insulating our houses better are all good steps toward reducing the capacity needs. The real reductions will require a reformed attitude about energy consumption. Unfortunately we probably will not see any change in real energy consumption until electricity gets very expensive.
Your comments stating,"Yea, because energy users never actually see how much the energy they use costs." is a little ambiguous. Do you pay an electric bill? You probably pay around $0.10 per kwh - cheaper if you are on a municipality or an electric cooperative.
If you really believe that you can provide cheaper, more reliable energy with solar generation - I welcome you to invest in the opportunity. I am sure that there are people out there willing to take your money. Otherwise the choice we have right now is to efficiently use our fossil resources.
CO2 isn't a pollutant - (Bornstein, Seth; Bush Administration: Carbon Dioxide Not a Pollutant; Common Dreams, Portland, Maine USA; August 29, 2003 by the Knight Ridder News Service http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0829-02.htm.) so your point is really mute.
New Environmental regulations call for NOx scrubbers - tighter particulate controls, and less opacity on new coal units put into operation. These new controls have doubled the cost to generate with coal. Add a carbon tax onto to the mix , like most extremist want to, and you will soon be paying $0.20 per Kwh instead of the $0.10 per kwh you are enjoying now.
The point is - Solar and wind are nowhere ready to replace the energy demands that we face in te next decade. The solution calls for the electrical industry to build conventional coal power plants to meet the current need. The electrical industry is researching various cleaner methods to use coal such as coal gasification.
Hydro and Wind are being invested in to meet some of the needs, unfortunately they are an intermittent resource and can typically only be counted on for a 30% capacity factor (or less) for generation. That means that for 100 Mw of installed capacity you will average about 30 Mwh of generation. Some hours you may get 100 MwH - and other times none.
If you are truly sold on solar - get off the grid and grab you some solar cells - its been done before. It will cost you more per KwH and you will live a lifestyle that is very diminished as compared to what you are living now
yes - "strip mining " has its own environmental regulation to meet. The land after it is "strip mined" is recovered with top soil. essentially - the land looks very similiar to its original state - only a little lower in elevation.
also when the last time you heard of miners getting trapped in a pit?
The anti-coal fanatics need to get a grip. New environmental implementations on coal plants make these units very environmentally friendly. The united States is the Saudi Arabia of coal - If we want to reduce our foreign dependence on fossil fuels - we have an answer in coal. Coal plant construction is at an all time high - so statements that we are "running away from coal as fast as we can" are ridiculous.
Wind and solar are good ideas in concept - but are not ready to supply even a fraction of the energy requirements used by the US. We enjoy relatively low cost energy in the united states - if we keep up the process that make it hard to build the necessary capacity to serve the needs - we WILL see energy prices increase drastically.
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Energy efficiency coupled with the use of coal is the best answer to meet the energy needs for today and the next couple of decades. It is easy to be critical and not actually try to be part of the solution. Does your house have the most efficient heat and air conditioning? Are all the lamps in your house utilize leds? Are you driving a vehicle that gets 50+ MPG? Have you relocated your residence so that you are walking distance of work/school/church? Point is we could all do better at using our resources better - and it isn't all up to "the other guy" or the electric utilities. Can we do better ? - of course. Replacing older heat/air units with higher efficiency units , utilizing more fluorescent lamps and led lights, insulating our houses better are all good steps toward reducing the capacity needs. The real reductions will require a reformed attitude about energy consumption. Unfortunately we probably will not see any change in real energy consumption until electricity gets very expensive. Your comments stating,"Yea, because energy users never actually see how much the energy they use costs." is a little ambiguous. Do you pay an electric bill? You probably pay around $0.10 per kwh - cheaper if you are on a municipality or an electric cooperative. If you really believe that you can provide cheaper, more reliable energy with solar generation - I welcome you to invest in the opportunity. I am sure that there are people out there willing to take your money. Otherwise the choice we have right now is to efficiently use our fossil resources.
CO2 isn't a pollutant - (Bornstein, Seth; Bush Administration: Carbon Dioxide Not a Pollutant; Common Dreams, Portland, Maine USA; August 29, 2003 by the Knight Ridder News Service http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0829-02.htm .) so your point is really mute.
New Environmental regulations call for NOx scrubbers - tighter particulate controls, and less opacity on new coal units put into operation. These new controls have doubled the cost to generate with coal. Add a carbon tax onto to the mix , like most extremist want to, and you will soon be paying $0.20 per Kwh instead of the $0.10 per kwh you are enjoying now.
The point is - Solar and wind are nowhere ready to replace the energy demands that we face in te next decade. The solution calls for the electrical industry to build conventional coal power plants to meet the current need. The electrical industry is researching various cleaner methods to use coal such as coal gasification.
Hydro and Wind are being invested in to meet some of the needs, unfortunately they are an intermittent resource and can typically only be counted on for a 30% capacity factor (or less) for generation. That means that for 100 Mw of installed capacity you will average about 30 Mwh of generation. Some hours you may get 100 MwH - and other times none.
If you are truly sold on solar - get off the grid and grab you some solar cells - its been done before. It will cost you more per KwH and you will live a lifestyle that is very diminished as compared to what you are living now
yes - "strip mining " has its own environmental regulation to meet. The land after it is "strip mined" is recovered with top soil. essentially - the land looks very similiar to its original state - only a little lower in elevation. also when the last time you heard of miners getting trapped in a pit?
The anti-coal fanatics need to get a grip. New environmental implementations on coal plants make these units very environmentally friendly. The united States is the Saudi Arabia of coal - If we want to reduce our foreign dependence on fossil fuels - we have an answer in coal. Coal plant construction is at an all time high - so statements that we are "running away from coal as fast as we can" are ridiculous. Wind and solar are good ideas in concept - but are not ready to supply even a fraction of the energy requirements used by the US. We enjoy relatively low cost energy in the united states - if we keep up the process that make it hard to build the necessary capacity to serve the needs - we WILL see energy prices increase drastically.