More on What I Feel Is The Most Likely Scenario

[Mark A]

Sounds good on paper, but I'll believe it when I see it. Natural gas is less efficient than coal and prices will skyrocket when the demand jumps. Why were the nuke plants offline? To keep prices up? Perhaps some solar panels and smart meters will save us

These are units that were never completed for various reasons but mostly because costs skyrocketed after Three Mile Island.

[Schadenfreude]

They are replacing coal burning plants with gas turbine plants now. Also TVA is bringing more nuclear units online as well. That is not endangering the grid.

A friend of mine worked pretty much the whole build of one of these in Rogersville, The gas line feeding this beast was something like 3' in diameter & it works something like the Titanic's drive system did. 3 gas turbines driving 3 generators with the leftover heat used to make steam to drive a 4'th generator. I'm still waiting for a huge rate hike to pay for the beast though.

[ProfEngr]

A friend of mine worked pretty much the whole build of one of these in Rogersville, The gas line feeding this beast was something like 3' in diameter & it works something like the Titanic's drive system did. 3 gas turbines driving 3 generators with the leftover heat used to make steam to drive a 4'th generator. I'm still waiting for a huge rate hike to pay for the beast though.

Those make about 800+MW combined. At least the 3 I worked at 10yrs ago were that big. Before combined-cycle plants, turbines were typically used during peak load.

Who knows when the TVA nukes will actaully go online. Cost overruns; schedule delays. The inspection process alone for a single weld is a nightmare.

[Guest Cogent Design]

One Second After is the classic.

 

- OS

 

 

I would second this.  It will scare the hell out of you, when you realize how devastating it could be!!!

 

Definitely read this book. I read it in a couple days. It really captures you through terrifying realism.

[raildog]

Right now gas is cheaper than coal because of fracking the gas is a buy product of that the oil is what they are looking for opeck is not happy about us useing our own oil that is why they have flooded the market and drove the price of oil down now it will not be cost effective to frack so natural gas prices will go back up and coal will be the hot commodity agen

[ProfEngr]

It's hurting their other enemies as well.

[Moped]

It's hurting their other enemies as well.

Specifically, Iran. The Saudis are also worried about the Russians becoming the No. 1 oil producing country in the world as well. They've already fell behind us. They do not want to fall behind Russia too. So by cutting oil prices the can kill three birds with one stone. Honestly, OPEC being a scary world dominating entity is no long a big issue. As a group, they really don't like each other and don't play very nice together.

[Dirtshooter]

I worked in the oil & gas industry for 34 years and we have had a surplus of natural gas for years. All cars and light trucks should have been put on it years ago. I have always thought that hydro electric is the way to go, think about all the creeks, rivers and large impoundments. You could stack them one in front of the other. If the fed's would quit throwing our money at foreign countries we could have the best and safest infrastructure on this rock.

[Ugly]

Concur with the hydro, is the best option for renewable energy, at least the less environmentally impactful.

Problem is, water is the most destructive force of nature. Perhaps a Glock material turbine system would do it :)