5 ms·

U.S. Energy Mapping System

37 points by teh_klev 11y ago

brownbat 11y ago
Neat, you can explore all sorts of comparisons. It's interesting how renewables are basically absent from the deep south, apparently because there aren't as many renewable resources there. Calm winds weren't surprising, but I was caught off guard to see that Mississippi and Alabama don't have the same solar potential as states to their west and east at the same latitude. Wood power plants are huge there and along the coasts, I thought those were only used in third world countries.
- ZeroGravitas 11y ago
  The largest power station in Europe is partially converting from burning coal to wood (or biomass) much of which apparently is supplied from the southern US. It's a bit complex as to whether this is a good thing or not. The main worry is the source of the wood. They claim it's mostly leftovers from sawmills which would be fine if true, but some have thrown doubt on that claim.
  - Dylan16807 11y ago
    If is wasn't scrap, wouldn't it still be from tree farms, and not a problem?
    - fineIllregister 11y ago
      Farms, maybe. Not without problems, though: > In North Carolina, the heaviest logging is occurring in flood plains and wetlands that are among the region’s most productive natural habits. In Georgia, where most of the trees for wood pellets are grown on pine plantations, natural forests are rapidly disappearing as landowners see new opportunities to make money, said Ben Larson, forestry and bio-energy program manager for the National Wildlife Federation. > The landscapes most at risk, Larson said, are traditional Southern savannas with a canopy of tall pines and an understory of grass and shrubs that provide food and shelter for wildlife. With more land converted to pines to make wood pellets, the vital understory is disappearing, replaced by stands of fast-growing pines that are raised as a cash drop. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-europes-climate-policies-have-led-to-more-trees-cut-down-in-the-us/2015/06/01/ab1a2d9e-060e-11e5-bc72-f3e16bf50bb6_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-e...
fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
The landing page has a map, but where are the interesting overlays? Strike that. Maybe they weren't planning on having a bunch of visitors. Lots of stuff popped up after a few minutes.
- wahsd 11y ago
  It's a government agency that used some horrible contract vehicle to contract with a horribly inadequate contractor to build something half-assed. That's why performance is bad and I guarantee won't be notably better on even the best day. My guess is that map cost about $150,000. I'd go look through records to find out if I had the time.
  - ghouse 11y ago
    I used it a couple months ago. Performance wasn't bad then.
    - fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
      One at a time please, take a number. /s
  - cwmma 11y ago
    sadly it's not anything that malicious, they're just using a wms type map setup which involves requesting a bounding box of the viewing extent and the server responding back with it, it's really really bad because it's impossible to cache and really slow. But sadly it's a 'standard' that many gis people think is a good idea.
    - jessaustin 11y ago
      I appreciate the technical details, but this doesn't really contradict the parent. It's very possible that "horrible contractors" would implement ill-considered "best practices" like the one you describe.
samcheng 11y ago
Esri / ArcGIS is great for analysis, but people should know by now that it is a terrible web-scale presentation tool. I'd guess that the majority of visitors to this site bounced before the markers showed up! This is classic government contractor fodder, though: I bet it works great with only a handful of users (like during a demo).
- protomyth 11y ago
  It does some really weird stuff when I zoomed in. It put the map centered but drew all symbols in the right, bottom. Its like the overlay had bad x,y.
- utunga 11y ago
  So true. I clicked the link. Tried to work out what it does. Decided the map had nothing on it at all. Wondered if maybe that's why hn was linking to it, so came back here to see. If I hadn't read your comment above I would never have seen the actual content of this thing.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
p1mrx 11y ago
It needs some way to filter or scale by power output; currently, there's no visual distinction between Diablo Canyon and some random Bloom Box installation, which makes the map pretty much uninterpretable.
matopher 11y ago
Neat idea, disappointing execution. I actually just worked on a site with a similar concept. I think it delivers more palatable results, but I'd love to hear what others think: http://usofenergy.com http://usofenergy.com

37 points by teh_klev 11y ago

Neat, you can explore all sorts of comparisons. It's interesting how renewables are basically absent from the deep south, apparently because there aren't as many renewable resources there. Calm winds weren't surprising, but I was caught off guard to see that Mississippi and Alabama don't have the same solar potential as states to their west and east at the same latitude. Wood power plants are huge there and along the coasts, I thought those were only used in third world countries.

ZeroGravitas 11y ago
The largest power station in Europe is partially converting from burning coal to wood (or biomass) much of which apparently is supplied from the southern US. It's a bit complex as to whether this is a good thing or not. The main worry is the source of the wood. They claim it's mostly leftovers from sawmills which would be fine if true, but some have thrown doubt on that claim.
- Dylan16807 11y ago
  If is wasn't scrap, wouldn't it still be from tree farms, and not a problem?
  - fineIllregister 11y ago
    Farms, maybe. Not without problems, though: > In North Carolina, the heaviest logging is occurring in flood plains and wetlands that are among the region’s most productive natural habits. In Georgia, where most of the trees for wood pellets are grown on pine plantations, natural forests are rapidly disappearing as landowners see new opportunities to make money, said Ben Larson, forestry and bio-energy program manager for the National Wildlife Federation. > The landscapes most at risk, Larson said, are traditional Southern savannas with a canopy of tall pines and an understory of grass and shrubs that provide food and shelter for wildlife. With more land converted to pines to make wood pellets, the vital understory is disappearing, replaced by stands of fast-growing pines that are raised as a cash drop. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-europes-climate-policies-have-led-to-more-trees-cut-down-in-the-us/2015/06/01/ab1a2d9e-060e-11e5-bc72-f3e16bf50bb6_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-e...

fnordfnordfnord 11y ago

The landing page has a map, but where are the interesting overlays? Strike that. Maybe they weren't planning on having a bunch of visitors. Lots of stuff popped up after a few minutes.

wahsd 11y ago
It's a government agency that used some horrible contract vehicle to contract with a horribly inadequate contractor to build something half-assed. That's why performance is bad and I guarantee won't be notably better on even the best day. My guess is that map cost about $150,000. I'd go look through records to find out if I had the time.
- ghouse 11y ago
  I used it a couple months ago. Performance wasn't bad then.
  - fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
    One at a time please, take a number. /s
- cwmma 11y ago
  sadly it's not anything that malicious, they're just using a wms type map setup which involves requesting a bounding box of the viewing extent and the server responding back with it, it's really really bad because it's impossible to cache and really slow. But sadly it's a 'standard' that many gis people think is a good idea.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    I appreciate the technical details, but this doesn't really contradict the parent. It's very possible that "horrible contractors" would implement ill-considered "best practices" like the one you describe.

samcheng 11y ago

Esri / ArcGIS is great for analysis, but people should know by now that it is a terrible web-scale presentation tool. I'd guess that the majority of visitors to this site bounced before the markers showed up! This is classic government contractor fodder, though: I bet it works great with only a handful of users (like during a demo).

protomyth 11y ago
It does some really weird stuff when I zoomed in. It put the map centered but drew all symbols in the right, bottom. Its like the overlay had bad x,y.
utunga 11y ago
So true. I clicked the link. Tried to work out what it does. Decided the map had nothing on it at all. Wondered if maybe that's why hn was linking to it, so came back here to see. If I hadn't read your comment above I would never have seen the actual content of this thing.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

p1mrx 11y ago

It needs some way to filter or scale by power output; currently, there's no visual distinction between Diablo Canyon and some random Bloom Box installation, which makes the map pretty much uninterpretable.

matopher 11y ago

Neat idea, disappointing execution. I actually just worked on a site with a similar concept. I think it delivers more palatable results, but I'd love to hear what others think: http://usofenergy.com http://usofenergy.com