Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
A coal-fired power plant requires 3.21847 times more Btus into the boiler than it gets out of the generator.
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Yes. Total primary energy consumption is rated as thermal energy produced. So coal and nuclear produce about 1/3 of that into usable electricity. The heat would also be usable such as the new coal plant in Germany which will supply district heat to 60,000 homes. Gas plants are 50% and could also start using the waste heat since they can be built close in to cities.
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So if you multiply wind and solar by 3 you can say that the current levels of wind in the USA could conceivably replace 7% of energy and solar could replace .66%.
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But there are also other challenges involved with mass electrification of tasks that we currently use liquid fuel for ie farming, mining, transportation. We would also need Gigatons of batteries. Which are not very energy dense.