Part I: Data
[This is some of the data I was looking at in preparation for the essay. There are magic numbers in here, but I have not yet the time to investigate fully. The entire essay is a work in progress, as I hope is evident. Were I, in my present station, to follow through to its absolute completion, alone, it would take many years simply to acquire the education necessary. If this sounds intriguing, I encourage any and all assistance. We are in this together, after all.]
Population Stats: Total: 308,745,538
Kansas: 2,853,118
– foreign population: 177, 139 = 6.2% (no matter)
In Kansas:
High School Graduates, age 25+: 89.2%
Bachelor’s Degrees, age 25+: 29.3%
Labor force: 1,494,540
Employed: 1,390,619
Free Labor force: 104, 921
Mean Travel time to work: 18.8 minutes
Households: 1,101,672; Total Units: 1,222,749
Persons/household: 2.48
House heating fuel: 79% gas
20% electric
Working Population = 2,175,144 age 16+, (minus) 376,611 age 65+ = 1,798,533
Total employed = 1,390,619
“Unemployed” = 407,914
(minus) free labor force = 103,997
Industry (% of employed)1
Ag, forest, mining = 3.6%
Construction = 6.4%
Manufacturing: 13.4%
Wholesale = 3.0%
Retail = 11.1%
Transportation = 4.9%
& warehousing
Information = 2.6%
Finance and Insurance = 6.3%
& real estate
Administrative Science = 8.3%
& waste management
Education & Health care & Social sciences = 23.7%
Entertainment & Food Service = 7.7% (entertainment is the lesser contributor)
Public Admin = 4.7%
Other Services = 4.4%
Energy Consumption & Production
So, for an average conversion of kWh to diesel fuel, we find that:
449 Miligals. diesel
creates
62 trillion Btu
AND
4,695 mil kWh
creates
20 trillion Btu
TRANSIT
mil. kWh —–> tril. Btu
2000: 299 2005: 288 2009: 234.75 = increasing efficiency
2000: 1/3,300 (how much heat is created with each *use unit* of electricity.)
2005: +- 1/3,600
2009: +- 1/4,500 (the efficiency of electricity, it’s “strength”, is increasing; it can DO MORE, WITH LESS, being that each Btu is a release of heat, less kWh to create more Btu means better efficiency, further for each unit, more “punch”.)
mil. gal Diesel —–> tril. Btu
2000: 7.20 2005: 7.16 2009: 7.24 = static efficiency
mil. gal petrol —–> tril. Btu
2000: 7.99 2005: 8.0 2009: 8.0 = static efficiency
AIR TRANSPORT
mil. gal jet fuel —–> tril. Btu
2000: 6.95 2005: 7.07 2009: 8.20 = decreasing efficiency? (weight? larger planes? lower mileage? But why?)
RAIL TRANSPORT & FREIGHT
mil. gal diesel —–> tril. Btu
2000: 7.2 2005: 7.2 2009: 7.2
All Highway Consumption:
2000: 19.164 (tril. Btu) 2005: 20,641 2009: 20,783 = Lower (w/efficiency)
Electrical Generation
Consumed(respective unit) Produced (bil.kWh) Rate
2000 2005 2009 2000 2005 2009 2000 2005 2009
Coal: 995 1041 934 1966 2012 1755 1.97 1.93 1.87
Petrol: 195 206 67 111 122 39 0.56 0.59 0.58
Nat. Gas: 5.7 6.0 7.1 601 761 921 105.4 126.8 129.7
Nuclear: ———————- 753 782 798
Hydroelec.: ———————- 275 270 273
GeoTherm: ———————- 14.1 14.7 15.0
Solar: ———————- 0.5 0.6 0.9
Wind: ———————- 5.6 17.8 73.9
Total Elec. Generation (2010) = 4,120 bil kWh
Kansas Net Generation (2009) = 46.7 bil kWh
Total Energy Consumption (2010): +-98 quadril. Btu (using all fuel & elec.)
Generation (2010): +-75 quadril. Btu (by fossil fuel)
(2010): +-22 quadril. Btu (by renewable elec.)
Expenditure Result Rate
Coal (2009): 21.63 quadril. Btu 1755 bil. kWh 1,232.47
Hydroelc. (2009): 2.67 quadril. Btu 273 bil. kWh 9,780.22
[what mean?]
*SCRATCHES*
So… a 354 MW power plant running at maximum capacity can create 1.3M kWh, enough to power 120,000 homes.2
Average Energy Usage:
335.9 mil. Btu/person = total, including transportation consumption
East-North-Central/household usage = 117.7 mil. Btu
Midwest = 113.5 mil. Btu.3
To Fuel Average Consumption in the Midwest:
Electricity: 10,790 kWh ALSO 107.9 mil. Btu
Nat. gas: 83,000 ft3 85.6 mil. Btu
Fuel oil: 528 gal. 73.3 mil. Btu
LPG: 652 gal. —————-
Vehicle Consumption (Midwest 2001, released 2005):
Average/household = 2.0 vehicles; 23,700 miles traveled; 1,176 gals. petrol
Fuel usage/car = 588 gals. petrol/year
1 gal. petrol/125 Btu
Transit = 1 gal. diesel/139 Btu
1 kWh/4,260 Btu (seems overly efficient; something wrong with calculation, or usage of kWh for public transit)
Wind Turbine Stats
The GE 1.5 MW series – 37 meter blades, high commonality in spare parts, 65 or 80 meter heights, standard or cold weather, clockwise from upward. Maintenance employs how many per unit?
Hydroelectric is limited, and may only be expected to account for 15-20% of production, tops. Reduce the necessary coverage of the total to that amount to determine necessary wind or solar installations.
Grand Coulee Dam4
(6,809 MW) – pump generating 314 MW for 600 MW (storage rate)
3rd powerplant: penstock 12 meter diameter, maximum supply of water is 35,000 ft3/sec. (for each generator)
3 generators using this flow – 805 MW capacity each
Battery Complex in China, Hebei Province5
– world’s biggest battery complex
– 36,000 kWh
– takes up 1 acre of land
– made of iron phosphate (mostly? what other materials required?)
– service life of 20 years
– efficiency transfer of 95%
Energy Usage/unit Food6
– 12.4 billion bushels of corn
– 147.2 bushels/acre
– 84 million acres total
Farm Expenditures7
– cost $289 bil. in 2010
– $5,883/farm fuel cost
– $131,793/farm total
Land Area
– 2.2 million farms total
– 917 mil. acres total land
– 420 acres/farm avg.
In Kansas:
– 65,500 farms
– 46 mil. acres total land
– 702 acres/farm avg.
1Census.gov – American Community Survey – Social, Economic, Housing, Demographical
Census.gov – Statistical Abstract
2SEGS: Solar Energy Generating Systems:
– built by NextEra Energy Resources; Luz Industries bankrupted en route
– 354 MW installed capacity; 936,384 mirrors and cover 1600 acres; mirrors are 94% reflective; wind breaks mirrors ocassionally; mirrors heat synthetic oil, routed to water heat transfer; then to steam turbines
– Employs 140 people, presently.
3EIA: 2005 residential Energy Consumption Survey
4Stats from Wikipedia.org
5from Pop. Sci., 01/04/12 AND Energy Matters, 01/03/2012.
6Crop Production 2011 Summary – USDA Reports
7Farm Expenditures 2010 Summary (released August 2011) – USDA Reports