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Well we could build pebble
Well we could build pebble bed nuclear reactors and rebuild the existing grid with superconductive wiring to increase the transmission efficiency dramatically. If only we had spend some stimulus money on that instead of doing what exactly? Fighting lawsuits over cape wind and paying people 500x the going rate for caulking old windows? /missed opportunity
Your backyard
Would be a perfect location for a nuke.
Don't you think?
Or do you really honestly think these could get built without the lawsuits of the sort that Cape Wind is facing? Particularly when we already have a severe nuclear waste problem?
Yes it would if was a pebble
Yes it would if was a pebble bed reactor. They are safer than the average microwave oven. We only have a nuclear waste problem because the US is stupidly the only country in the world where it is illegal to reprocess spent fuel.
Simple reward of policy
When people oppose or over-regulate building pipelines and nuke plants, we get about the most expensive electricity in the country, and thus more reason for business and jobs to leave the area. There is a glut of natural gas, just no cheap way to get it here to satisfy increasing demand as more heating switches from oil. Cape wind is no answer, its expensive electricity too.
LNG
Maybe the push for those LNG terminals will start back up. The glut actually didn't help things with delivery, because the people looking to make capital investments and put in the terminals didn't think it was with worth the glut pricing when put aside the NIMBYISM.
Honestly though, we should also be looking at tidal power, especially with so much of our population right near the coasts with such large tidal surges.
James Fallows just did a report of some interesting engineering projects up in Eastport: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/11/small-town-big-tides...
They *did* build two LNG
They *did* build two LNG terminals on the North Shore. But they sat unused, because cheap American fracked gas reduced the demand for imported gas. They kept these terminals ready in case prices increased.
I don't know why the WBUR article doesn't mention this part of the issue. Here's an article from last year.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/01/23/offshore-gas-terminals-ma...
Need for pipelines not LNG terminals
The Metro Boston area is lacking in pipeline capacity to deliver natural gas, which is cheaper than delivery by ship.
Replace your conventional
Replace your conventional light bulbs with LED's; you can get an LED equivalent of a conventional 60W bulb for about $9.00. They use much less electricity and will last for 20+ years. Our condo association replaced conventional street lights with LED's and the cost of the lighting decreased 70%.
About 20% of US electric production is used for lighting.
Where?
Where do you find an LED bulb for 9 bucks?
HD home brand and Cree
HD home brand and Cree branded ones. Good for 20 years to pay for themselves. Make CFLs look like the garbage they are.
60w equivalent for $9
I bought a Cree from Home Depot last week and installed in in an outdoor motion-sensitive porch light. So far so good. It is reportedly dim-able, so I gave it a try in a fixture that does not work with CFL, which are most everywhere else. The light quality (CRI) is not as good as halogen, but good enough for a porch light.
Good to know
Last time I looked at an LED light bulb (within the last 6 months it seems) it was closer for $30. Guess I'll have to
go looking again.
IKEA
IKEA has them in a number of sizes and types. We picked up a couple for $7 each. (price depends on size and application).
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/living_room/205...
We also got some sweeeeeet undercabinet strips for our kitchen - not cheap, but sleek and compact and they have a really nice color to them.
I got 60W-equivalents for $6
I got 60W-equivalents for $6 each at Costco. I think they're up around $8, maybe 9, now, though.
$9.00 LED light bulbs might
$9.00 LED light bulbs might never pay for themselves.
Same problem with solar, it's more of a novelty because of the high up front costs and 30 yr payback unless you heat with electricity, can panel the house, lawn, and garage.
U phail @ maths!
Oh yes they will! And you'll save a lot!
Those bulbs at Home Despot are as bright as a 60W incandescent and are rated at 9.5 Watts (let's assume they're bragging and it's actually 10W, to make calculations easier and give old school an edge).
Maths time!
LED cost = $9 (Cree 9.5W, It comes up a buck cheaper for me at HD, but we'll err on the expensive side)
Incandescent cost = $0.30 (Philips soft white 60W 12-pack from that same HD)
Average residential cost of electricity in New England = just under 16¢/kilowatt hour
Total Cost ($) = ( wattage (in kilowatts) x utility rate ($/kilowatt hours) x time-used (hours) ) + purchase price ($)
We want to find the time (t) when the total cost of using an Incandescent and LED become equal.
(0.060 x 0.16 x t) + 0.3 = (0.010 x 0.16 x t) + 9...cost of incandescent = cost of LED
0.0096t + 0.3 = 0.0016t + 9...plug in the numbers
0.008t = 8.7...balance the equation
t = 1087.5...hours till the streams cross!
Ok, so just over 1000 hours of use till you've saved the big up-front cost of the LED bulb. For a fairly heavily used fixture (4 hours/day) that's less than a year. For a fixture only occasionally used, it might take a few years.
But just how much will you actually save over the lifetime of the bulb? Let's take the mfctrs of each type at their word and assume 20K hours for the LED and 1K hours for the incandescent. Here's the lifetime cost to use a single LED bulb vs. the twenty incandescents:
Incandescent cost = (0.060 x 0.16 x 20000) + (0.3 x 20) = $198
LED cost = (0.010 x 0.16 x 20000) + 9 = $41
So at today's prices, each LED bulb will save you over $150 in it's lifetime. And that number will just get higher as electric rates increase and LED prices come down.
(Btw, adam, while writing this i discovered that the subscript and superscript tags aren't working. Having size, color, cite and code would have helped make things more readable too. signed, one of your annoying high-maintenance users)