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russ_watters
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That first bit is kind of misleading because that's the total energy use from all sources, not just electricity. It includes heating and cars, for example. Now, maybe he's talking about replacing everything with electricity, but note that heating is not replaced at a 1:1 ratio. A heat pump allows you to get the same amount of heat for perhaps 1/3 as much energy input. Similarly, an electric car is much more efficient than a gas powered car. So an all electric world would use substantially less power than that estimate.zoobyshoe said:This has some damning figures:
and:
Second, 1 nuclear plant a day may sound like a big number, but we live in a big world. Though it has slowed a bit from its peak, China alone was turning-on a new coal plant better than once every 4 days until a few years ago. That's just one country and one source of energy! The world most certainly has built large power plants at a rate of one a day before and though nuclear is harder than other sources, it is something that can be done. France as a country went all nuclear for electricity over a period of 20 years -- there is no reason other countries can't do it too.