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Title: China’s wind farms can now produce more energy than all of America’s nuclear plants
Source:
Quartz
URL Source: http://qz.com/357332/chinas-wind-fa ... ll-of-americas-nuclear-plants/
Published: Mar 8, 2015
Author: Richard Macauley
Post Date: 2015-03-08 07:34:28 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 19183
Comments: 23
China is building more than a third of the world’s nuclear reactors currently under construction, and has plans to triple its nuclear power capacity by 2020. That has some observers worried about the country’s opaque and politicized nuclear safety regulations.
But amid all the hype over nuclear power, China has been expanding its wind power capacity at an even faster clip. Last year, China’s wind farms reached a capacity of 115,000 megawatts, compared with just 20,000 megawatts from its nuclear sector. (To be sure, capacity is different than the actual amount of energy created.)
Working at full pace, China’s wind farms could now produce more energy than all of the nuclear power plants in the US.
Despite the government’s ambitious goals to keep developing its nuclear energy capacity, for the foreseeable future, nuclear is unlikely to match wind in China.
After the 2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the Chinese government put the brakes on building nuclear power stations in the west of the country, as this is an area prone to earthquakes. Meanwhile, the north of China famously struggles with a lack of water, something nuclear power stations require plenty of to keep reactors cool, and the east coast, where there is plenty of water, is home to China’s most developed cities, which are increasingly turning to NIMBY-ism.
Beijing says it plans to increase China’s wind power capacity to 200,000 megawatts by 2020, but its own figures see nuclear rising to just 58,000 megawatts in the same time frame.
It’s encouraging to think that wind power may be a leap-frog technology in China, skipping over the potentially messy and dangerous issues related to nuclear power. But wishing nuclear away could be unwise, and most of China’s massive—and growing—energy needs are still met by burning coal. If barriers to nuclear persist, the energy gap will likely be plugged by more fossil-fuel power plants, which would render the cleanliness of China’s wind farms academic. (1 image)
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#1. To: Willie Green (#0) (Edited)
Title: China’s wind farms can now produce more energy than all of America’s nuclear plants
24/7/365?
LOL. Get serious.
Working at full pace, China’s wind farms could now produce more energy than all of the nuclear power plants in the US.
Tellingly, the article does not report that China's nuclear plants actually have ever produced more electricity for even a single moment than America's nuclear reactors.
#2. To: TooConservative (#1)
US Nuclear Power In DeclineAfter increasing rapidly since the 1970s, electricity generation at U.S. nuclear plants began to grow more slowly in the early 2000s. It then plateaued between 2007 and 2010—before falling more than 4 percent over the last two years. Projections for 2013 show a further 1 percent drop. With reactors retiring early and proposed projects being abandoned, U.S. nuclear power’s days are numbered.
We're not building enough nukes to replace the old ones that are shutting down, and the total number has fallen below 100 for the first time in over 30 years.
#3. To: Willie Green (#2)
We're not building enough nukes to replace the old ones that are shutting down, and the total number has fallen below 100 for the first time in over 30 years.
America has a supply of natural gas and oil that will last through the 21st century. That's before you consider alt energy and improvements in coal-burning tech, hydrogen, etc.
There is no shortage of energy, particularly here in the States.
#4. To: TooConservative (#3)
America has a supply of natural gas and oil that will last through the 21st century.
No... we have an abundant supply of low-grade, carbonaceous crap that contaminates the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat.
#5. To: Willie Green (#4)
America has far cleaner water and air virtually everywhere in the country than we had at the end of WW II.
#6. To: Willie Green (#0)
I noticed this at Slashdot today:
Pakistan Builds Nuclear Reactors In Karachi, Sparking Fears of DisasterWorld leaders have fretted for years that terrorists may try to steal one of Pakistan's nuclear bombs and detonate it in a foreign country. But some Karachi residents say the real nuclear nightmare is unfolding here in Pakistan's largest and most volatile city. Of all places to locate a nuclear reactor, they argue, who could possibly make a case for this one — on an earthquake-prone seafront vulnerable to tsunamis and not far from where al-Qaeda militants nearly hijacked a Pakistan navy vessel last fall. |
#7. To: TooConservative (#5)
Of course... it was in the post-war period that we first enacted federal air & water regulations: The Modern Environmental Movement that the GOP/Tea Party -- Oil & petrochemical industry want to gut.
October 30-31, 1948Although I'm too young to recall Pittsburgh being that smoggy, I do recall my father stoking the coal fired furnace in the basement of the home we lived in until I was 4-years-old. And I was 6 when my grandfathers (both of them) were required to convert their furnaces from coal to gas.
In Donora, PA, 20 people die and over 600 go to the hospital after sulfur dioxide emissions from a nearby steel and wire plant descend in the form of smog, made worse by a temperature inversion that trapped the sulfuric poison in the valley of the town.
Pittsburgh at noon.
And I can recall most of the buildings & stone churches being black with soot, and natural color of the stone being gradually revealed by the weather 15~20 years later.
And I vividly remember the orange glow of the coke ovens & open hearth furnaces on the horizon like a sunset, long after the sun went down. And the acrid sulfur stench of the air pollution and the burning/stinging sensation in my eyes.
And I remember elderly relatives and neighbors, who never smoked tobacco, suffering from emphysema & other breathing difficulties
And I remember streams & rivers being void of fish because the water was literally orange with industrial pollution.
And I've seen firsthand the devastation that strip-mining inflicts on the landscape.
The more I think about it, the less tolerance I have for the Oil & petrochemical industries. As far as I'm concerned, the Bush family, Koch Brothers, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and all those others who advocate Fossil Fuel Production Uber Alles are guilty of genocide on a grand scale.
#8. To: Willie Green (#7)
The more I think about it, the less tolerance I have for the Oil & petrochemical industries.
And here I thought you were such a Koch puppet.
#9. To: TooConservative (#8)
And here I thought you were such a Koch puppet.
Willie's more of an Occupy liberal.
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. Robert Kennedy
#10. To: Willie Green (#7)
www.cheapflights.com/flights-to-china/
#11. To: Willie Green (#7)
And I remember streams & rivers being void of fish because the water was literally orange with industrial pollution. And I've seen firsthand the devastation that strip-mining inflicts on the landscape.
I recall the baby that used to be in that womans belly. A liberal lied and told her that it wasn't a baby. It got cut to pieces. A bloody mess. Because of your voting this has happened millions and millions of times.
You vote for evil. You vote for murderers over and over. Why do you hate humanity.
#12. To: A K A Stone (#11)
The GOP lied and told me that free trade would bring democracy to Red China.
Our trade deficit now subsidizes China's "One Child" policy of government FORCED abortions.
Don't go telling me that I'm the one who voted for "evil."
I voted for Ross Perot, not the Oil Lobby Hypocrites.
#13. To: Willie Green (#12)
The GOP lied and told me that free trade would bring democracy to Red China. Our trade deficit now subsidizes China's "One Child" policy of government FORCED abortions.
You mean Clinton right.
You also voted for mass murderer Obama.
#14. To: A K A Stone (#11) (Edited)
Republicans are for abortion not less than Democrats. The difference is that they lie to the suckers like you, before they get your vote.
#15. To: A Pole (#14)
Republicans are for abortion not less than Democrats. The difference is that they lie to the suckers like you, before they get your vote.
Some of them lie. Some don't.
All democrats today support murdering kids.
#16. To: Willie Green (#4)
TooConservative (#3) --- America has a supply of natural gas and oil that will last through the 21st century.
No... we have an abundant supply of low-grade, carbonaceous crap that contaminates the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat. --- Willie Green
Atta boy Willy, keep spouting the greenie/progressive line, and hopefully one day, - you too will share in their total control of a authoritarian state.
#17. To: Willie Green (#0)
"China’s wind farms can now produce more energy than all of America’s nuclear plants"
When the wind is blowing.
#18. To: TooConservative, Willie Green (#1)
Working at full pace, China’s wind farms could now produce more energy than all of the nuclear power plants in the US.
I am surprised you both missed the key put, namely "working at full pace". No wind no generator ever works at full pace. While some wind farms achieve about 50% on-line time the industry average is closer to 35%.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#19. To: Willie Green (#0)
China’s wind farms can now produce more energy than all of America’s nuclear plants
Whoever wrote this piece of idiocy is obviously a paid shill for some enviro-wacko organization.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#20. To: Willie Green (#0) (Edited)
www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=16271#China produces and consumes almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined.
www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=16271#
China produces and consumes almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined.
#21. To: TooConservative (#6)
Pakistan's largest and most volatile city. Of all places to locate a nuclear reactor, they argue, who could possibly make a case for this one — on an earthquake-prone seafront vulnerable to tsunamis and not far from where al-Qaeda militants nearly hijacked a Pakistan navy vessel last fall.
Karachi is in Sindh (remember Napier's employment of Peccavi as a pun?), however the policy of the Holy Roman Empire known as Pakistan has turned Karachi into a city where the Sindhi people are a minority in their largest city. The Pashto people of the Taliban outnumber Sindhi people in Karachi. Were the Sindhi people to take their destiny into their own hands, as our own forefathers once did, they might be able to turn Karachi and the the Sindh into a viable proposition. It would take ethnic cleansing to drive the Pashto back to their own homelands, Karachi would end up being less diverse, and a lot less volatile.
#22. To: nativist nationalist (#21)
The Pashto people of the Taliban outnumber Sindhi people in Karachi.
The mountain regions of eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan (including Waziristan) are all Pashto areas. This is why I refer to our military operations there as being in Af-Pak. It isn't western Afghanistan that gives us (or the old Soviet occupation forces) any problems.
Afghanistan is Pakistan's fallback area in the event of a land war and invasion by India. It's one reason why the Pakis keep Afghanistan so backward, mostly by Pakistan's ISI manipulating the Taliban and providing support. Of course, the poppy traffic is interwoven in this trans-border arrangement.
#23. To: SOSO (#18)
I am surprised you both missed the key put, namely "working at full pace". No wind no generator ever works at full pace. While some wind farms achieve about 50% on-line time the industry average is closer to 35%.
Over a continental area, the wind is not consistent. This is as true in China/Mongolia as it is in America.
So the widespread placement of wind generators guarantees they will virtually never all be producing electricity at once.
I don't actually object to wind energy. I only object to forcing the insanely high subsidies that force up the price of electricity to all consumers for the private guaranteed-profits of fatcat windfarm owners.
Take away the subsidies and I don't object at all. Other than the huge numbers of bird deaths caused by wind farms, particularly that of eagles and other large predator birds. The Audubon Society, a liberal auxiliary in the modern era, remains silent on the bird genocide occurring every day as a result of this misbegotten industry.
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