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I work for a major power company in the US and about 50% of our power comes from coal. The next one is natural gas coming it at 30%. It's because there is so mu
by MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
I work for a major power company in the US and about 50% of our power comes from coal. The next one is natural gas coming it at 30%. It's because there is so much red tape around nuclear and damming rivers that it's really the only option.
Since we're farther north, solar is nothing but a tax write off if there is a loss. Wind is very unreliable and touchy. If it's too windy, we gotta stop them or their velocity gets so fast it pulls the fiberglass apart. Too little and it can barely generate power worthwhile. We're trying what we can but not only to shareholders, but to people who buy power from us, we can't exactly tell them "yeah we're gonna institute brown outs because we want more green energy." I mean we'd have numerous states breathing down our necks and nobody would look upon us favorably during rate increase time.
Coal is here to stay for a solid hundred years and I don't care what anybody says. Unless we hit a power storage revolution to that of computers, we will not be escaping fossil fuels. They are still far too abundant, cheap, and reliable.
- mlindner 5y agoYou realize that we aren't building any more coal plants in the US right now right? Tons of coal plants are shuttering all over the country every year. Coal has been going down every year for a long time in the US. There aren't any new coal plants currently planned anywhere in the US.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y agoNot in the electrical industry. Maybe in other types of facilities, but in electrical, we need reliable, continuous, and cheap ways to provide power. Nothing beats coal and natural gas[0]. Obviously though Natural gas is cleaner so we're making moves to expand that. Hence why it takes up 30% of our generation as opposed to like the 5% of green energy. So what you see in the article I listed, while coal is being used less, natural gas is being used more. [0] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48596 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48596
- mlindner 5y agoI just told you a fact and you ignored it. Even in the electrical industry there are coal plants shuttering every year, and there are NO new coal plants planned in the US, for any purpose. And yes Natural Gas is increasing, but we were talking about coal. Coal has been going down for over a decade now in all sectors, and will continue to go down. US electricity generation for coal has been going down every year. In 2020 combined renewable energy generation (hydro+solar+wind+biomass+geothermal) surpassed coal energy generation. So you're talking nonsense. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0?agg=0,1&fuel=vtvv&geo=vvvvvvvvvvvvo&linechart=ELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.WND-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.SUN-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.GEO-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.BIO-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.OTH-US-99.A~&columnchart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.A&map=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.A&freq=A&start=2001&end=2020&ctype=linechart<ype=pin&rtype=s&maptype=0&rse=0&pin= https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0?agg=0...