What Is the Structure of Our Current Electricity Generating Capacity?
I find it interesting to look at where we are today, in terms of electric generating capacity, electric production, utilization, and cost of new infrastructure (assuming we really can amortize costs over the conventional time frame). If we look at EIA data, US electric generating capacity has grown as follows since 1996: From this graph, one can see that coal, hydroelectric, petroleum, and nuclear generating capacity have remained almost constant since 1996. Natural gas generating capacity is now huge, exceeding even that of coal. The electricity that is actually produced in the US has grown much differently, as shown in this graph of EIA data: What has happened is that coal and nuclear generated electric power have increased in recent years, because these plants are now being operated longer hours. Natural gas production has also increased, but not in proportion to the additional capacity added. Wind capacity has been added, but production remains tiny–only 1% of total US electricity
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- What Is the Structure of Our Current Electricity Generating Capacity?
