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So... average household (in America, anyway, don't know about UK) uses a little more than 10,000 kwh of electricity per year... one kilowatt-hour of electricity

So... average household (in America, anyway, don't know about UK) uses a little more than 10,000 kwh of electricity per year... one kilowatt-hour of electricity creates 1.1 - 1.2 pounds of carbon dioxide... so each household emits maybe 6 tons of CO2 per year from electricity usage. So if this is 1 million homes, that's 6 megatons of CO2 saved per year. The world emits 37 gigatons per year. So this saves 6/37,000, or ... I just got depressed. Every (very little) bit helps, right?

tlb 7y ago
Yes, we just need to build about 5000 more of them. Or 2500 wind and 2500 solar. It's possible -- there are lots of facilities we have 5000 of in the world. For example, there are more than 5000 airports with passenger service, all built in the last 110 years.
- tunesmith 7y ago
  If you go by number of turbines (which you shouldn't since these are probably way bigger than average), the US currently has about 325 of these farms.
- flukus 7y ago
  According to the google summary of this paywalled article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/08/all-of-the-worlds-power-plants-in-one-handy-map/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/08/all-o...) there are 62,500 plant in the world, so 5000 more of these seems pretty doable. And most of the world uses less energy than an average American, so it would be less on average.
adrianN 7y ago
Your calculation is a bit pessimistic because electricity is a much higher quality energy than what you get from burning fossil fuels. For example, electric cars, from wind turbine to movement, are maybe 70-80% efficient. ICE cars from gas station to movement are maybe 30% efficient (now add in the cost of extraction and refining). Similarly, heating your home by burning oil you get a little less than 1J of heat per Joule-equivalent oil burned. But with a heatpump you get 2-4J of heat for every Joule of electricity.

tlb 7y ago

Yes, we just need to build about 5000 more of them. Or 2500 wind and 2500 solar. It's possible -- there are lots of facilities we have 5000 of in the world. For example, there are more than 5000 airports with passenger service, all built in the last 110 years.

tunesmith 7y ago
If you go by number of turbines (which you shouldn't since these are probably way bigger than average), the US currently has about 325 of these farms.
flukus 7y ago
According to the google summary of this paywalled article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/08/all-of-the-worlds-power-plants-in-one-handy-map/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/08/all-o...) there are 62,500 plant in the world, so 5000 more of these seems pretty doable. And most of the world uses less energy than an average American, so it would be less on average.

adrianN 7y ago

Your calculation is a bit pessimistic because electricity is a much higher quality energy than what you get from burning fossil fuels. For example, electric cars, from wind turbine to movement, are maybe 70-80% efficient. ICE cars from gas station to movement are maybe 30% efficient (now add in the cost of extraction and refining). Similarly, heating your home by burning oil you get a little less than 1J of heat per Joule-equivalent oil burned. But with a heatpump you get 2-4J of heat for every Joule of electricity.