Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hnphillipj 2765 days ago
You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries. They are only indirect competitors - through the automobile.
4 comments

You in fact shouldn't know this as the EIA reports that 3,239,699 barrels of petroleum products were consumed in august of this year alone for electrical generation in the US (source https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/browser/index.php?tbl=T... )
I'll change my comment from not -> hardly.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

While your number seems like a lot, it's really just a drop in the bucket. The US consumes close to 8 billion barrels of oil annually. I was, however, surprised that it was still as high as 0.5%.

Hawaii likes to generate power that way. Northern parts of Alaska do too.
>You should know that oil is not used for elec. gen in developed countries.

Eh? When I worked for a United States generation company our coal-burning plants could and would be switched to bunker fuel if the price was right. To be fair it's not much (less than 5%) depending on how you slice it, but in their 2016 annual report [1] Dynegy reported 2.6 TWh (terawatt hours) sold into the wholesale market and .7 TWh into retail.

Be careful about blanket statements unless you're an expert in the area because other HN readers are experts.

[1] = https://www.dynegy.com/sites/default/files/Dynegy_2016_Annua...

> To be fair it's not much (less than 5%)

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

Here's a better source. It's 0.5%. I felt that was enough to warrant using "not used in developed countries," but fair enough.

>Be careful about blanket statements unless you're an expert in the area because other HN readers are experts.

Easy there hotshot

> You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries.

Visit Hawaii sometime. Oil on Oahu. Diesel on the other islands.

You’ll see diesel generators powering islands in Southeast Asia as well.

Diesel is a useful option for places not connected to a larger grid.

I do know that. I'm commenting on the fact that Texas is investing in renewables while at the same time investing nonrenewables at the same time.
Renewables are primarily for domestic consumption, oil is an export good.