Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
Even in 2006, the country got about 50% of its electricity from coal. As we noted in our post that visualized every power plant in the United States, the share that coal now has is closer to 34%.
Why is coal declining? The surge in the use of natural gas and renewables.
Natural gas power now generates 30% of the U.S. electricity, and renewable sources such as solar and wind have grown significantly in the last decade.
In 2005, there were zero states that generated more than 10% of their electricity from renewables. Today, that number is up to 11 states.
So, if I’m reading the chart right, DC which dictates renewables to the rest of us gets none of its energy from renewable sources?
I vote for more coal burned cleanly; gas will easily be destroyed by terrorist and it will take a long time to return to coal.
The biggest factor here is the absolute “War on Coal” by the greenies…In the past 10 years my avg monthly utility bill has gone from around $80 to $170…this is because natural gas and renewables COST way more than coal.
However one may feel about coal, gas, windmills or other “renewables”..the bottom line is that the decision to switch was not done by those who pay…but was made for us and the masses will just have to live with their lot–whatever the PTB decide.
“In the past 10 years my avg monthly utility bill has gone from around $80 to $170…this is because natural gas and renewables COST way more than coal.”
—-javelin
Correct. The left doesn’t give a shit about the poor and middle classes, and your statement is but ONE example of their hypocrisy, as in “burning less coal will create cleaner air and fewer health problems to save money on health care costs.”
Without a shred of scientific evidence to back up that preposterous statement, they then turn around and pass Obamacare which RAISED health care costs. So the clueless (poor and middle) classes are getting shafted twice on their utility and medical insurance bills.
A few months ago, I drove west on I-90 across southern MN into South Dakota (and across SD). In MN there were thousands of windmills. In South Dakota, none. That tells me that wind isn’t yet economically via without subsidies. So don’t forget the cost of the subsidies.
I wonder what oil really costs when you add to it the costs of our wars trying to control it. We have wasted trillions of dollars in Iraq, Lybia, Syria, etc. Add to that amount a large part of our War on Terror which began as a result of our interference in the politics of the Middle East. I am guessing oil would cost half as much as it does now
The reason coal consumption has fallen off is not because of natural gas. It is simply due to Peak Coal. Yes I know there is billions of tons of “coal” int he ground. But that coal is not anthracite. I can assure you that if we had massive anthracite reserves, we’d be digging the hell out of it and it would be 90% of our energy production. Anthracite burns clean. It is a truly amazing rock actually. But when people think of coal they think of the leftover crap that is bituminous coal. It is worthless in the relative sense. The grading gets lower and lower until it isnt worth it to dig it up or deal with the uncleanliness of it. But of course no one really talks about “peak coal”, as if not talking about it makes it go away. The same thing is happening with oil. Light sweet crude has peaked. Hell, all forms of classical crude have peaked. But that shale crap has helped cover this up to some degree. If you subtract the total number of joules of oil that the world has produced, and subtract the total number of joules spent on that extraction, you can see that we’ve passed peak oil too. But just like with coal, it does not mean there isnt a whole lot of oil left in the ground. I really wish people were wiser about this.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2014/0328/Thorium-a-safer-nuclear-power
http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/09/11/is-thorium-the-biggest-energy-breakthrough-since-fire-possibly/
There is a limit on how much of the energy mix can be from renewables unless we are willing to have brownouts and blackouts and not have a stable grid. There needs to be something to provide the base load and that job is suited to coal and nuclear. Natural gas plants are a lot cheaper to build and the price of natural gas is low, so it makes sense that it has gained over the years. Unless the price of natural gas goes up relatively soon, there will be more and more nuke plants that get closed down,since they are not competitive in the open market.
Wind energy is shit. Just live within a half mile of a turbine and you’ll see. John