(10-21-2014 12:53 PM)BobL Wrote: Keystone is oil, 1% of the power generated in the US come from petroleum products.
Currently 7% of our power is from Hydro, 19% nuclear, Coal is 39%, NG 27%. Renewable is 6%.
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3
Ideally we begin to lower that coal percentage. Coal plants are more expensive to build and operate than NG and wind and environmentally destructive. The majority of the coal power plants in the US are over 40 years old. These need to be decommissioned or transitioned to biomass or NG.
Updated Capital Cost Estimates for Electricity Generation Plants, gave an estimate for a new nuclear plant of US$ 5,339/kW and for onshore Wind $2,438/kW. Operating costs are also lower for the wind. A NG plant is still much cheaper to build and operate than any other plant. So with the NG estimated to be drilled via fracking this makes the most sense economically.
http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/beck_plantcosts/index.html
Realistically in 15 years we would see 20% renewables, 20% nuclear, 5% hydro, 30% NG and 25% coal, with coal gone in 30 years.
Keystone is oil. And we indeed don't use oil for electricity much. For driving ... ON THE OTHER HAND ......
Also .... coal is FAR cheaper per kW than wind. And I would also dispute the notion that wind isn't polluting. It has several major problems:
1) Bird blending. If you care about endangered species of birds, don't put a wind mill anywhere near their habitat.
2) Picket fence shadowing. AKA: Not in my backyard!
3) Incessant noise. AKA: Not in my backyard!
4) Visual pollution. There is nothing sexy or awe inspiring about a wind mill. AKA: Not in my backyard!
You can't place them near airports. You can't place them near dense or even moderate to low density dwellings. You can't place them near endangered avian species. You can't place them in areas of high avian density. You can't place them anywhere the wind doesn't blow consistently and with a fair amount of speed. In other words ... you can't put them in most places.
There are a lot of crappy investments when it comes to renewable energy. Wind is probably the worst.
If you're after carbon reduction ... the prices of natural gas thanks to fracking are putting coal out of business at a staggering pace.
If you're after "green" sources, you should continue to root for global solar production to go up. Every time you double global capacity, prices drop roughly 20%. You should also root for off-peak "storage" methods which can store otherwise wasted production windows from nuclear/hydro/geothermal/wind/solar, such as hydro retention ponds.