US electrical infrastructure near breaking point

Hogan · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 25, 2004 Posts: 1298

sicophiliac

Too bad the economic stimulus package did not address this issue, 150 billion could have gone a long way in upgrading and maintaining our electrical grid.

HEADER_RACK · Heavy Crude Joined: Feb 15, 2007 Posts: 427

All those electric cars!! They will be contributing to the demise of civilization!! Let's hear it for the cornies!! Laughing

_________________
There will come a day when we would have wished to do a little evil for a greater good.

roccman

Yep - best get your wind generators up and panels bolted down.. Its gonna be a wild ride ahead of us.
_________________
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins

"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis

We are going back to roccland - me

Hogan · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 25, 2004 Posts: 1298

lawnchair · Intermediate Crude Joined: Oct 20, 2004 Posts: 712

20 years of, averaging 2.2% annual growth in demand will do that to you. Double the population growth. 55% more power drawn than in 1988. Added demand about the size of a Missouri or a New Jersey every year.
_________________
At 1% annual growth, human bodies will incorporate every gram in the observable universe in approximately 10,170 years.

Homesteader

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1330

The son of our local electrical co-op board member told me to expect KWHR price to double in a couple years, due to new plant construction. If we get a carbon tax, Indiana coal-generated power will be costly indeed. Thus my solar system, and lots of usage cutbacks.
_________________
Local fix-it guy..

frankthetank

What about those nuke plants? The McCain Nuke Initiative? Have they started building those yet? How many are completed?
_________________
"Oil is going up because we use too much oil, and the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling"
-President Bush 11/07/07

SILENTTODD

I heard Edward Teller tell me in 1966 we were going to have fusion by 1975. What happened!?
_________________
Skeptical scrutiny in both Science and Religion is the means by which deep thoughts are winnowed from deep nonsense-Carl Sagan

lawnchair · Intermediate Crude Joined: Oct 20, 2004 Posts: 712

startswithearthquakes · Tar Sands Joined: May 27, 2008 Posts: 60

oh nooozz!!!1 Doom DOO00M DoOooOOMMm

Hogan · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 25, 2004 Posts: 1298

cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3262

Twilight · Expert Joined: Mar 02, 2007 Posts: 2971 Location: UK

Perhaps as in the UK, there is no direct comparison between an old and new nuclear power plant due to the greatly increased size of the new ones? It is possible that what has been proposed would allow the US to "stay even".

The grid issue is very real though, and the last thing we need is to scale mass-ownership of mains-charged electric cars into this environment.
_________________
"The American people are watching the numbers climb higher and higher at the pump and they're waiting to see what the Congress will do." - George W Bush