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Wed Apr 13, 2011 at 23:37:59 PM EDT
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(File this under "stupid human tricks" - promoted by eli_beckerman)
A larger version of this chart, where you can read the numbers more easily is at
https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/energy/energy_archive/energy_flow_2009/LLNL_US_Energy_Flow_2009.png
Estimated US energy use in 2009 was 94.6 quadrillion btu's. 54.64 quads were "rejected energy," wasted energy. 39.97 quads actually provided energy services, did work. We lost about 57.75% of the energy we produced to get the use of 42.25% of what we, mostly, burned. At least, those are the percentages I get with my calculator. |
| gmoke :: 2009 Energy Use in the USA |
| Energy consumption from 2008 to 2009 declined slightly, as did our efficiency:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
The estimated U.S. energy use in 2008 equaled 99.2 quadrillion BTUs ("quads"), down from 101.5 quadrillion BTUs in 2007.... Of the 99.2 quads consumed, only 42.15 ended up as energy services.
That's a gross efficiency of 42.49%. We waste more energy than we use.
Electricity production operates at 31.63% and transportation at 24.98% efficiency. Tell me again why energy efficiency isn't the top priority in our energy debate.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
According to [Thomas] Casten [of Recycled Energy], energy waste is pervasive and endemic throughout our electrical system but invisible in our policy discussions. The average US power plant operates at 33% efficiency and throws away 66% of the energy it produces through waste heat, transmission and distribution losses, and other inefficiencies. There are even greater losses before you get to the end use of that electricity. For instance, an incandescent light has an end use efficiency of about 3% [somebody should tell Rand Paul]. Furthermore, the level of electricity efficiency stagnated in 1960. For the last 50 years, there has been no growth in average efficiency in our power plants and the conversion of energy to useful work (exergy, exergy, exergy) actually began declining in 2000.
There is some good news in this chart in that the residential, commercial, and industrial uses of energy operate at about 80%.
Plus, if we look back to Amory Lovins' 1976 Foreign Affairs article "The Road Not Taken," we will see that the projections then were for the US to use about twice the energy that we do now. We have grown our economy enormously (believe it or not) since 1976 but we haven't been as wasteful of energy as we thought we would be.
These are just gross numbers, a first cut at basic analysis, but what they reveal may be useful. |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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