RE: [cdn-nucl-l] DOE Tracks Resurgence of Coal-Fired Power Plants

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@pnl.gov>]

Adam McLean wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: cdn-nucl-l-admin@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA
[mailto:cdn-nucl-l-admin@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA] On Behalf Of Adam
McLean
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 7:38 PM
To: cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] DOE Tracks Resurgence of Coal-Fired Power Plants

Posted on the US department of Energy newscast service on August 2, 2006
and
at:
www.fossil.energy.gov
An astounding 153 new coal plants with a total installed capacity of
93,000 MW are under currently under construction in the US, representing
a total investment of $136 billion US.  More details for every plant
here:
www.netl.doe.gov/coal/refshelf/ncp.pdf

Adam 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-power@fossil.energy.gov
[mailto:owner-power@fossil.energy.gov]
On Behalf Of DOE Fossil Energy Communications Office
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 4:23 PM
To: Coal and Electric Power
Subject: NEWSALERT: DOE Tracks Resurgence of Coal-Fired Power Plants

DOE Fossil Energy NEWSALERT    
--------------------------------   

A database that tracks proposals for new    
coal-fired power plants has recently been     
updated by the Department of Energy's     
National Energy Technology Laboratory. It    
shows that 93 gigawatts of new coal-fired    
power plants are under consideration,    
representing 153 power plants - or enough    
electricity to power 93 million homes.    

For more details, link to the Energy    
Department's Fossil Energy web site at:   

http://www.fossil.energy.gov

   <snip>

------------------------------   

There are some problems here -- partly Adam's doing and partly DOE's.

As the DOE quote in the post says, these are plants under consideration,
not plants under construction.  The DOE hype/report notes that it can be
expected that some of the 93 Gwatts under consideration will never be
built.  I was surprised to read that 2.5 Gwatts is proposed for our
little desert metropolis.  Haven't heard anything about that, but I
suspect someone is thinking about hanging a coal-fired steam generator
on the front end of the turbine hall of one or both of our local
cancelled nuclear plants, WNP 1 & 4.  I would be surprised if it ever
happened.

DOE's problem is the equating of 93 Gwatts with enough electricity to
power 93 million homes.  Let's see, by this calculation, the current 100
Gwatts of nuclear power + 250 Gwatts of coal-fired power + 150 Gwatts of
gas-fired and hydro power would be sufficient to power 500 million
homes, or 1.6 homes for every resident of the US.  My wife and I are
wanting to know where our other 2.2 homes are.

When John Paulos wrote Innumeracy, he may not have realized he was
writing about the DOE Office of Fossil Energy.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
Jim.dukelow@pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.