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  #1  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 8:35 PM
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What's the source of your city's electricity?

These days the city of San Francisco gives residents a choice of electricity providers with the default being an organization called "CleanPowerSF".

Quote:
A program of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, CleanPowerSF is a local solution to the climate crisis, offering renewable, affordable and accessible energy to our community. We empower residents and businesses to choose a more sustainable future, today.
https://www.cleanpowersf.org

They claim to have 380,000 "customers" in SF with each "customer" being either a business of household housing multiple individuals.

The basic residential service is appropriately labeled "Green" however there is also a "Supergreen" option for a supplemental charge of $.01 per KWhr

I'm introducing this issue because today I received the periodic notification of the sources of my power.



This compares the 2 city options, "Green" and "Supergreen" with the statewide average power sources. As indicated, the default "green" option produces about 8.5% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the same amount of power statewide and the "Supergreen" option is emission-free.

CA has historically been somewhat lucky in having some natural emission-free power sources like hydro and geothermal (hot springs/geysers). I'm not sure what impact the drought will have especially on hydro going forward but the amount of solar/wind power being generated statewide is increasing yearly.

So does your city or electric company tell you where it gets the power it provides to your home and/or the greenhouse gasses emitted by generating it?
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  #2  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 8:52 PM
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I can't find Chicago-specific stats, but since 70% of Illinois lives in Chicagoland, statewide figures are probably close enough.

Illinois electricity production 2019 (most recent year I could find):

Nuclear (53.6%)
Coal (26.5%)
Natural Gas (11.7%)
Wind (7.9%)
Biomass (0.2%)
Hydroelectric (0.1%)

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...ns_in_Illinois


I believe that Illinois is one of the few states left that still leans so heavily on its old nuclear plants.

Additionally, these figures are from 2 years ago and we've probably had a couple more coal plants converted over to natural gas during that time. And wind plants across the Midwest are always being expanded, so probably a touch more of that now too.
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  #3  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 9:05 PM
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According to the internet 60 percent of Oregon electricity is from renewable resources. That will probably decline a bit as PacifiCorp's hydro plants in southern Oregon are shut down. Locally, Portland is a mixed bag. We have 4 power companies in the metro area. Most of Portland proper is PGE and half of their portfolio is renewable. Hydro and wind are big out here.
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  #4  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 9:06 PM
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I haven't found for São Paulo specifically. The national system is very well integrated in any case.

In Brazil as a whole, it's 64% hydroelectric; 27% thermoelectric (40% of those biomass), 7% wind (I didn't expect it was that high already), 1% nuclear and 0.1% solar.

As rainfall is in under average for over the two years in Southeast and Centre-West, reservoirs are at very low levels and the country is about to face an energy crisis of epic proportions. Things are not only even more dramatic because the economy is still at 2012 levels and 2022 doesn't look promising, so power demand is not set to increase.
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  #5  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 9:08 PM
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ComEd's most recent Environmental Disclosure report can be found here:

https://www.comed.com/SafetyCommunit...g_03312021.pdf

NATURAL GAS-FIRED POWER 39%
NUCLEAR POWER 34%
COAL-FIRED POWER 21%
WIND POWER 3%
HYDRO POWER 1%
SOLAR POWER 1%
OTHER RESOURCES 1%

*Sources of Electricity for the 12 months ending March 31, 2021

. . .
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  #6  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 9:53 PM
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Ontario (2018)





In 2018, about 96% of electricity in Ontario is produced from zero-carbon emitting sources. Most provinces are coal free. PEI is interesting in that 99% comes from wind.


https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-an...s-ontario.html
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Last edited by isaidso; Sep 29, 2021 at 10:04 PM.
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  #7  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 9:57 PM
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Latest numbers I could find for Seattle City Light:

-88% hydroelectric
-5% nuclear
-4% wind
-1% coal
-1% natural gas
-1% biogas
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  #8  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 10:24 PM
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nyc

- wind 3%
- nuclear 31%
- natural gas 44%
- hydro 19%
- coal 1%
- solar >1%

New York is aiming to build 1,500 megawatts of battery storage by 2025 as part of its efforts to adhere to a major new climate law passed last year. The legislation, known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA, mandated that New York generate 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040. Meanwhile, battery technologies “have been proven and prices have come down,” said Dennis Wamsted, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

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  #9  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 10:54 PM
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The most recent source I could find in a quick search for Nashville was 2016, which revealed the following:

39.8% nuclear
25.8% coal-fired
21.5% natural gas-fired
9.7% hydroelectric power
3.2% from wind and solar
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  #10  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 10:58 PM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BnaBreaker View Post
The most recent source I could find in a quick search for Nashville was 2016, which revealed the following:

39.8% nuclear
25.8% coal-fired
21.5% natural gas-fired
9.7% hydroelectric power
3.2% from wind and solar

good lord you moved from chicago to nashville? i don't mean to pry, but what'd ya do that for??
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  #11  
Old Posted Sep 29, 2021, 11:02 PM
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Atomic farts.
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  #12  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 12:52 AM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist View Post
Atomic farts.


we don't have to worry.

unlimited fusion power is only two decades away.

always.

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  #13  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 1:41 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc View Post


we don't have to worry.

unlimited fusion power is only two decades away.

always.

They will power hyperloop...
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  #14  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 2:35 AM
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Austin -

https://austinenergy.com/ae/about/re...chased%20power.
Quote:
Austin Energy generates power through a diverse generation portfolio of natural gas, coal, nuclear, renewable resources, and purchased power. - Mar 26, 2021
Quote:
Austin Energy's significant solar investment puts the utility on track to reach the Resource, Generation, & Climate Protection Plan goal of 750 MW of utility-scale solar ahead of the 2025 target. Combined with the utility's other renewable energy contracts, Austin Energy expects to meet 65% of customer energy needs with renewable energy resources by 2027.
The following are numbers from a pie chart showing real time numbers.

Quote:
The pie chart below shows the percentages of renewable and nonrenewable power being generated right now, in real time, as it relates to our customers' demand. All power produced and used is sold and bought through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market. As of August 2021, the 12-month rolling average for Austin Energy's generation mix was at 46% renewable energy.
Non-renewable - 64.5%
Wind - 30.4%
Biomass - 5.2%
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  #15  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 4:02 AM
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Power in my hometown comes from a big waterfall downtown as well as a bunch of other smaller hydro dams on the city's rivers. No need for green or supergreen options, we were green in the 1800s already, back when no one cared about emissions. (The downtown hydro power station has been continuously operating since the 1880s, making it, IIRC, the oldest in the country to be in operation.)

The city has been founded there for the waterfalls (the city's founder built a sawmill at the downtown waterfall location then a village popped up around it; the other falls in the area went on to power various 1800s-era factories) so it's always been a natural local source of power.
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  #16  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 6:09 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc View Post
good lord you moved from chicago to nashville? i don't mean to pry, but what'd ya do that for??
Born and raised in Nashville, but have lived in Chicago now for quite some time. I do consider Nashville my hometown though, and rep it on here mainly because Chicago has plenty of other folks here to answer questions like these on it's behalf.
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  #17  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 6:05 PM
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For Louisiana (and New Orleans) as of 2020,

Natural Gas = 70%
Nuclear = 17%
Renewable (wind, solar, hydro) = 9%
Coal = 4%

source: https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=LA
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  #18  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 6:29 PM
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Ontario is basically entirely renewable as Isaidso has already posted, notably with a huge amount coming from nuclear. The last coal plant closed in 2014, marking an end to basically the vast majority of "dirty" power.

Natural Gas is still used to deal with peak loads, but it's a small percentage of the grid overall.

Ontario spent a ton of money at the time to drop coal plants as my understanding is that it used to be a decent amount of the power grid, causing hydro rates to increase significantly. The controversy involving a few replacement natural gas plants caused a long time premier to lose his job over it, and even now a lot of people are sour about how much hydro costs went up to pay for it.

It's been great since they closed though, Smog days used to be a regular thing in the summer months in the GTA and they have almost disappeared now, basically in tandem with the closure of the coal plants.

Unfortunately some times the wind blows the pollution up from the plants in Ohio still leading to a handful of smog days a year.

Ontario has 3 major nuclear plants, including what was the largest plant in the world until fairly recently. They are all at end of life now and are also undergoing some very, very expensive rebuilds, but the province has decided to keep the plants instead of replacing them with alternate sources.

Given Ontario's strong baseload power sources, battery technology could be a good option to phase out the last of the natural gas plants. Hell, just doing water-based energy storage on a large scale would probably help immensely.
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  #19  
Old Posted Sep 30, 2021, 10:11 PM
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How your city/state produces electricity does not necessarily correlate with what the source of electricity is in your home, workplace, etc.

It can depend on many factors: which of the multiple, interconnected grids in where the city is located; who the end-use customer purchases their electric supply from... the electric utility, a competitive electric provider, an energy brokerage; how the electric utility purchases its power on the wholesale market/what generation types make up its portfolio; whether or not the electric utility is also a generator; whether or not electricity is supplied by out of state generators...

We have interconnected electric grids. Just because there's a coal-fired power plant and a hydroelectric plant in your city does not mean that when you turn on your TV, it's necessarily being powered by electricity coming from that coal-fired power plant and that hydroelectric plant.

It might not even be coming from your state. For example, Pennsylvania is one of the top 3 electricity producers in the US. It produces much more than it consumes, so it supplies other states within the same grid... which stretches from New Jersey to Chicago and down to North Carolina.
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  #20  
Old Posted Oct 1, 2021, 10:02 PM
Obadno Obadno is offline
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for Phoenix its the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating station:



The largest nuclear generating plant in the United States.

Also some solar panels, couple of old tiny damns and an ugly old nat gas plant that was recently updated and is much less ugly

New on the right, old on the left, they were replaced in the last 4 or 5 years.

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