In graphs and numbers, this article provides an overview of energy generation in the U.S., particularly electricity, during the last two decades. The data are extracted from the annual reports of the Department of Energy. For convenience, the various units used in the DOE tables are converted here to just one unit, the watt (W) with its billion multiple, the gigawatt (GW). Assigning the same unit for both generation and consumption enables straight-forward comparisons among efficiencies, capacity factors and the like.*
“Given the current productivity of wind and solar (W/S) employment, the presently available total work-force will be insufficient to manufacture, operate, maintain, tear down, dispose of, and erect all those millions of W&S plants that would be needed anew every 20 years.”
The Department of Energy (DOE) lists six energy sources as renewable: Wind, Solar, Hydro, Wood, Waste, and Geothermal.…
Continue Reading“The chief victims of the war against fossil fuels are the poorest citizens of the poorest nations. Developing countries need cheap energy.” – Stephen Moore and Kathleen Hartnett White. Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy, p. 237.
Stephen Moore, nominated last month by the Trump Administration for the Federal Reserve Board, has attracted criticism for his views on energy and climate from the usual sources (Grist, Huff Post, Desmog). In fact, poor and rich Americans and Left and Right politicos should support Moore’s realistic, utilitarian views. Dense mineral energies are for the masses in virtually all aspects of their daily lives.
Moore’s energy/climate views are well stated in his 300-page multidisciplinary primer (coauthored with Kathleen Hartnett White), Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy (Regnery: 2016).…
Continue ReadingThere was shock, surprise, and humor in the media when Trump not only denounced wind “mills” for intermittency, lack of predictable value, property losses, and bird kills but also topped his discussion with
“They say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, okay?”
Is President Trump correct in his five critical points? Even the last one? Or is it possible, as Trevor Noah suggested, turbines might be the only things that don’t cause cancer.
1. Intermittency
Electricity must be consumed the moment it is produced. Storage to allow deviations is prohibitively expensive in all but the rarest of settings. And it has always been this way.
Trump said, “Honey I’d like to watch TV tonight: are the turbines working?” And then his quotation from the Washington Republican fundraiser:
“Is the wind blowing?…
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