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Topic: Electricity Update

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rocketcityvol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #42 on: December 24, 2017, 09:55:53 AM »
Wind and solar the most expensive energy there is.  And not the best for grid stability.  But, in our quest to "save the earth", we will make another poor economic decision as a nation.
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rocketcityvol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #43 on: December 24, 2017, 10:00:47 AM »
Quote from: DunkingDan on December 06, 2017, 08:32:21 PM
Thats not the one. It was an American Firm

NRC is part of the problem as they are political instead of practical. Wish the nukes had been kept under the AEC  
True.
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DunkingDan

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #44 on: December 24, 2017, 10:58:38 AM »
Quote from: rocketcityvol on December 24, 2017, 09:55:53 AM
Wind and solar the most expensive energy there is.  And not the best for grid stability.  But, in our quest to "save the earth", we will make another poor economic decision as a nation.
Short term investors are doing us in as well as the ecoterrorist political correct idiot elitist and lemmings 
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President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings…  If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”

HK_Vol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #45 on: December 24, 2017, 07:18:26 PM »
Wind and solar the most expensive energy there is.  

That may have been true a decade or two ago - but not now.
In many cases and locations, it is the cheapest alternative for new builds.

And not the best for grid stability.  

With battery storage prices plummeting, that is becoming less of an issue.
Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. all receive over 30% of their electricity from wind - and the utilities have learned to manage it.
Solar + battery is the cheapest alternative for most tropical islands which otherwise have to import 100% of their fuel via ships.

But, in our quest to "save the earth", we will make another poor economic decision as a nation.

Anything that reduces our reliance on Middle Eastern Oil, I'm in favor of.
No input costs for wind or solar - so no worries about supply / demand shortages or price fluctuations.

Wind and solar a panacea?  Not at all.
But it is increasingly part of the solution.

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DunkingDan

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #46 on: December 24, 2017, 07:31:57 PM »
Be glad that they are looking to the waste from the old mines around here as well as the possibility of opening coal mines back up not only for the coal but for the rare earth elements that have found in them.
That may play havoc with the subsidized solar and wind industry, as big biz is not going to let that good back rock just lay there.
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President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings…  If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”

DunkingDan

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Cheap, Reliable, CO2-free Electricity, Now
« Reply #47 on: December 25, 2017, 09:45:25 AM »

 
 The ThorCon Nuclear Island. This entire structure is underground.



Safe
 
ThorCon is a simple molten salt reactor. Unlike all current reactors, the fuel is in liquid form. If the reactor overheats for whatever reason, ThorCon will automatically shut itself down, drain the fuel from the primary loop, and passively handle the decay heat. There is no need for any operator intervention. In fact there is nothing the operators can do to prevent the drain and cooling. ThorCon is walkaway safe.
The ThorCon reactor is 30 m underground. ThorCon has three gas tight barriers between the fuelsalt and the atmosphere. Two of these barriers are more than 25 m underground. Unlike nearly all current reactors, ThorCon operates at near-ambient pressure. In the event of a primary loop rupture, there is no dispersal energy and no phase change. The spilled fuel merely flows to a drain tank where it is cooled. The most troublesome fission products, including strontium-90 and cesium-137, are chemically bound to the salt. They will end up in the drain tank as well.
No New Technology
 
ThorCon is all about NOW. ThorCon requires no new technology. ThorCon is a straightforward scale-up of the successful Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). The MSRE is ThorCon’s pilot plant. There is no technical reason why a full-scale 250 MWe prototype cannot be operating within four years. The intention is to subject this prototype to all the failures and problems that the designers claim the plant can handle. This is the commercial aircraft model, not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission model. As soon as the prototype passes these tests, full-scale production can begin.
Rapidly Deployable
 
The entire ThorCon plant including the building is manufactured in blocks on a shipyard-like assembly line. These 150 to 500 ton, fully outfitted, pre-tested blocks are barged to the site. A 1 GWe ThorCon will require less than 200 blocks. Site work is limited to excavation and erecting the blocks. This produces order of magnitude improvements in productivity, quality control, and build time. ThorCon is much more than a power plant; it is a system for building power plants. A single large reactor yard can turn out one hundred 1 GWe ThorCons per year.
Fixable
 
No complex repairs are attempted on site. Everything in the nuclear island except the building itself is replaceable with little or no interruption in power output. Rather than attempt to build components that last 40 or more years in an extremely harsh environment with nil maintenance, ThorCon is designed to have all key parts regularly replaced. Every four years the entire primary loop is changed out, returned to a centralized recycling facility, decontaminated, disassembled, inspected, and refurbished. Incipient problems are caught before they can turn into casualties. Major upgrades can be introduced without significantly disrupting power generation. Such renewable plants can operate indefinitely; but, if a ThorCon is decommissioned, the process is little more than pulling out but not replacing all the replacable parts.
Cheaper than Coal
 
ThorCon requires less resources than a coal plant. Assuming efficient, evidence based regulation, ThorCon can produce reliable, carbon free, electricity at between 3 and 5 cents per kWh depending on scale.
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President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings…  If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”

DunkingDan

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #48 on: December 25, 2017, 10:02:55 AM »
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President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings…  If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”

HK_Vol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #49 on: December 27, 2017, 09:29:26 PM »
Yes - October is a low electricity demand month and the winds are pretty good that month.
Still the amount of electricity generated by wind in the Midwest in October was impressive.

% Electricity Generated by Wind in October:

Iowa         49.4%
S. Dakota  46.2%
Kansas      42.7%
Oklahoma  38.6%
N. Dakota  31.7%


Minnesota 22.2%
Colorado   22.0%
Idaho       21.6%
Nebraska  18.8%
N. Mexico 17.7%
Texas       16.7%



Solar:    % Total  (% Chg. vs. 2016)
California  17.5%  (+29%)
Nevada     12.6%  (+36%)
Vermont    11.5%  (+85%)
Hawaii       10.8% (+35%)
Mass.          8.9% (+44%)
Arizona       6.6%  (+31%)
Utah           6.4%  (+40%)
N. Carolina  5.7% (+104%)

With solar, if the amount increases by the same amount in 2018, these numbers will be even more impressive.  All of these states will easily be above 10% by 2020 if growth continues.


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HK_Vol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #50 on: December 27, 2017, 09:34:49 PM »
12 states generated more than 20% of their electricity from wind or solar in October.
3 states could join that group next year (Hawaii, Texas & Nebraska).

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HK_Vol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #51 on: December 27, 2017, 09:42:34 PM »
Coal production in the Northeast?  Negligible.

Below 1% from coal:
Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Vermont
New York

(New Jersey was 1.6% and Pennsylvania was 17.5%)

On the opposite end:
West Virginia   90.1%
Kentucky         82.4%

(Tennessee was only 29.3% while Georgia was 24.4% Alabama was 22.4% and Mississippi was 7.4%)

Tennessee should be lower next year as Johnsonville Coal Plant closes this week for good.
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HK_Vol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #52 on: December 27, 2017, 09:48:58 PM »
16.1% of Florida electricity came from coal in October 2017.
However, 22% of coal capacity in Florida gets taken offline permanently by April 2018.


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DunkingDan

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Weekly Coal Production
« Reply #53 on: December 27, 2017, 10:04:34 PM »
For the week ended December 16, 2017


·        Estimated U.S. coal production totaled approximately 15.1 million short tons (mmst)
·        This production estimate is 2.5% lower than last week's estimate and 0.1% lower than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2016
·        East of the Mississippi River coal production totaled 5.8 mmst
·        West of the Mississippi River coal production totaled 9.4 mmst
·        U.S. year-to-date coal production totaled 744.9 mmst, 6.4% higher than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2016

« Last Edit: December 27, 2017, 10:06:29 PM by DunkingDan »
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President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings…  If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”

HK_Vol

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #54 on: December 27, 2017, 10:53:19 PM »

https://www.eia.gov/coal/production/quarterly/pdf/t7p01p1.pdf

First half of 2017, coal exports were up 55.4%.
(15.8 million short tons).

That bastion of "green" (e.g. Europe) increased coal imports from the US by 41%.
Japan more than doubled its coal imports from the US.




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DunkingDan

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Re: Electricity Update
« Reply #55 on: December 28, 2017, 06:55:41 PM »
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President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings…  If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”
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