Posted on 10/23/2007 9:18:54 AM PDT by MainFrame65
Although these diagrams are a couple of years old, they do clarify the gross and net energy flows of the US economy, and clearly show the overall efficiency of that consumption in a way that some of you might find informative and useful.
https://eed.llnl.gov/flow/02flow.php
Great Graphic. Thanks.
I was expecting to see Algore’s house in there somewhere.
Didn’t you know Al BearManPig Gore invented Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in Sept. 1952, while he was composing a his Grammy Award winning video for MTV?
The U.S. is the “Saudi Arabia of coal”. We should be conducting a Manhattan Project-style effort to produce clean-burning coal plants across the nation.
“”t’s interesting how inefficient electrical generation and transportation are”
That’s what jumped out at me. Our local mayor is building small power plant’s for local business. they can sign on and and use state utility or the local in whatever mix/% they want at cost.
The savings must be mostly the transportation losses
I remember back in the seventies reading how transmission of electricity resulted in losses of 50%.
Superconductive transmission lines were the answer then.
Are they anywhere on the horizon?
That 27.8 loss in eletrical system losses is a freaking shame. We should be researching room temp superconductors as a national strategic project.
‘lost energy’, is misleading.
a typical nuclear power station puts
60 percent of the reactors-heat-output
into the air/water.
unavoidable.
so what
That's been going on since the early '80s. Problem is, high temperature superconductors are (as far as I know) all ceramics.
No. Most superconductors are going to be seen first in local distribution (eg, at a city level), or high-temp superconductors in transformers, panels, motors, etc.
Long-distance transmission lines will be a challenge for superconductors until some big breakthroughs happen in the physics and materials science of high-temp superconductors.
Thanks, NVDave. We always hear about sources but not line losses. Do you know of any pilot projects involving superconductors?
Actually, diesel engines are very significantly more efficient than spark engines, mostly due to much higher compression ratios. Building hybrid vehicles with plug-in capability and diesel generator sets would greatly improve our transport efficiency.
Every locomotive (except for a few antiques) is either electrically powered or a diesel-electric hybrid. If we electrified our long-haul tracks we could reduce fuel consumption significantly.
Finally, France get about 80% of their electricity from nuclear plants, and Japan is not far behind with about 60%. This is the number that we REALLY need to increase. We have a tremendous reserve of the raw materials, and one of the most advanced research facilities in the world.
Unfortunately, we also have the most whiny, obnoxious, luddite know-nothings standing in the way of progress in this field, reinforced by a cadre of judges willing to listen to their claptrap and actually afford it credibility. It’s time to put an end to their hegemony.
Our coal resource ought to be re-directed away from power generation and toward producing both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, for industrial use, home heating, and transportation fuels.
If I had my ‘druthers, the next thing I would buy from the Middle East would be a bag of sand for my future grandchild’s sandbox.
And, to that point, consider how dependent we are on that huge beyond description horde of semi trailers, hauling everything imaginable. Surely we could make greater use of railroads for bulk transport of non-perishables. Occasionally, in a contemplative moment, I marvel at the fact that there is hardly any corner of the U.S.A., however remote, that one cannot find iceberg lettuce in a little backwoods grocery store or lunch counter. Just a tiny illustration of the free market at work, a marvel of organization accomplished without being designed by government bureaucrats. But I digress. Sorry. However, it does illustrate our dependence on trucks, and diesel motors, for the widespread availability of consumables, including items far more essential to our health and well being than lettuce. If only the process were much more energy efficient.
The centralization of electricity production makes these losses virtually inevitable, because of Ohm’s law.
Unless we can come up with super-high-temp inexpensive superconductors and rewire the nation, or distribute electrical generation closer to where it is used, we’ll be stuck with it.
Nano carbon filled aluminum tubes with a copper cladding.
One thing I found interesting is that about 10% of all energy gets siphoned off before being used (export and nonfuel). Of the remainder, 61% is lost energy and 39% is useful energy.
That seems about right given the realities of engineering. I don’t think you can get more than 50% useful due to such things as entropy, etc., so we are 80% of the way to 50%.
The majority of this loss is in the transmission of the power from the plant, to the converter stations & substations, and out to the pole / box by your property.
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