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What does "clean" mean here? Wind and solar are 24.4% and "fossil" is 49.2% so what's the remainder? Are they counting natural gas as "clean"? It's not...
by foobarbecue 1y ago
What does "clean" mean here? Wind and solar are 24.4% and "fossil" is 49.2% so what's the remainder? Are they counting natural gas as "clean"? It's not...
- vel0city 1y agoThey're not counting natural gas, and I imagine they also don't include "clean coal". The remaining 26.4 is probably a mix of nuclear and hydro. Which lines up with historical US generation percentages.
- jandrese 1y agoNobody includes "clean coal" because it is a myth the fossil fuel industry made up to try to keep their business alive and to give politicians cover. There are around three tiny "clean coal" plants in the world, all together producing only a tiny fraction of a percent of the energy on the grid.
- vel0city 1y agoFully agreed on all points!
- hinkley 1y agoHydro is a big slice out west and they’ve likely included nuclear.
- zahlman 1y agoNatural gas is considered a fossil fuel, per Wikipedia. Unless you mean biofuels like methane, at least - but as far as I know, those are scarcely used anywhere on a large scale, certainly not the US. "Clean" sources are generally anything that isn't burning hydrocarbons. This includes nuclear, hydro and geothermal. Edit: See also a previous comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43755528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43755528