Category: Nuclear Power Generation
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Musings of a Nuclear Engineer and a Coal Power Engineer on the Adequacy of Bulk Power Supply for the Future
This document summarizes discussions of Don Spellman, a senior nuclear engineer, retired U.S. Navy Submarine officer and Dick Storm, a retired coal power engineer. We have had ongoing discussions for several years regarding the inadequacy of new replacement of Dispatchable or Base Load capable coal and/or nuclear power plants. Therefore, We decided to jointly write this article to share our views. Introduction America’s Grid grew from the days of Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse to about the 1990’s in an…
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CLEAN ENERGY CRISIS
Title of the prescient 2023 book by the late Mr. Donn Dears. Mr. Dears wrote many books and several are listed in the references below. His last book, “Clean Energy Crisis” was written before the announcement of many Data Centers were to be built and would drastically increase the rate of electricity usage. Mr. Dears…
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How Can a 6,000 MW Regional Utility in 2030 which Likely Will Be a 9,000 MW Utility in 2050… Achieve Net Zero Carbon? An Update on my Electricity Provider in South Carolina
The Great State of South Carolina is usually thought of as a “Conservative” state. However, when it comes to applying destructive “Climate Policies”, South Carolina is no more conservative than is California or New York. So, I thought I would repost my comments on the Santee-Cooper IRP. It is my understanding that the major Utilities…
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Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 3: The Transition that Isn’t, from the Perspective of Minerals
The Finland GTK organization has provided comprehensive and well researched information on the challenges of providing adequate minerals for the future. I recommend referring to their excellent work. (1) Also, the National Mining Association has excellent information on their web page. (2) The current slogan for the NMA is, “Minerals Make Life”. I would add,…
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Facing the Hard Truths of Energy, Part 2: Some Facts on the Reality of Replacing Conventional Forms of Energy
I was recently invited to a local civic club and my host asked that I focus on the limitations of minerals and difficulty of replacing conventional fuels with wind and solar. Here are some of the slides and my explanation which I used to attempt to drive the point home: The U.S. does not have…
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The Importance of Fuel Diversity to Power Our Economy and Our Lives, Part 1
Much has been written on the importance of energy to power a nation’s economy and to continue to provide a high quality Human Development Index. The purpose of this post is to focus on the importance of Fuel Diversity for electricity generation. There is a proven concept for energy storage for electricity generation. It is…
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How Can a 6,000 MW Regional Utility in 2030 which Likely Will Be a 9,000 MW Utility in 2050… Achieve Net Zero Carbon?
This is an update on my comments to the IRP development for my local Regional Utility, Santee-Cooper. The last draft IRP has been published for comment and the figure below shows the expected load growth up to 2042. This Figure is from page 28 of the IRP presentation updated in April 2023. Shockingly, there is…
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Influencers of American Energy Policy
America has foolish Decarbonization policies, now codified by our government. The U.S. Energy Policy amounts to No Energy Policy at all. It is absurd and unbelievable that such a great country as ours could enact such harmful policies. But, the U.S. Congress did. It is fair to ask, how could this come to be? The…
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Clean Energy Crisis
The title of Donn Dears new book Introduction Here is the actual Bulk Power Generation by fuel for Christmas week 2022. Note that at the peak on Christmas eve, 80% of the total electricity generation was from conventional generation using natural gas, coal and nuclear fueled generation. Sixty five percent was from natural gas and…
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American Dream = 100 Quadrillion Btus
Introduction The recent Supreme Court ruling which trimmed the power of the EPA is important to provide for less government restrictions and for the freedom of future Americans to enjoy the “American Dream”. This post is based on the importance of energy to power our way of life. Each American uses about a million Btus of…
Power for the U.S.A. 