3 ms·
total grid capacity listed here [0], looks like 4 million gigawatts, so yes 50 gigawatts is a small change. edit: I'll never get this right. it's 4 trillion ki
by jazzyjackson 5y ago
total grid capacity listed here [0], looks like 4 million gigawatts, so yes 50 gigawatts is a small change.
edit: I'll never get this right. it's 4 trillion kilowatt hours of generation, not kilowatts of capacity.
[0] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us-generation-capacity-and-sales.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-...
- londons_explore 5y ago4 trillion kWh != 4 million gigawatts.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- aero-glide2 5y agoI think you made a conversion mistake, that's too high. That's the equivalent of 4 million nuclear plants.
- stingraycharles 5y agoI think it’s 4 million megawatts, not gigawatts. Still a small change, but not as insignificant.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Gibbon1 5y agoThe problem is none of these articles provide numbers that allow you to grok what's actually going one. Probably because journalists are innumerate. You have a total 4X10^12 kwh/year of production, that's energy. 50 GW that's power. Wtf!!!??? Teasing it out I think. Solar you get probably 5 hours a day. Wind maybe more? eh, lets assume 5 hours. 5 hours a day, 1825 hours a year. So 50GW... lets say 50Mkw instead. 50X10^6 kw X1825 hr/year => 91,250,000,000 kwh/year How does that compare to current production? Percent added is 9.125X10^10/4X10^12 = 0.0228 or 2.23% Seems like a small amount but it's growing exponentially. If it increases by 25% a year then you'll be adding 5% a year of renewables per year in 5 years.