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Comment by nandomrumber

8 hours ago

Since we’re here making comparisons, here’s the USA’s electricity production breakdown:

   22.2% Nuclear
   19.5% Renewable
   31.7% Natural gas
   26.0% Coal
   0.6% Petroleum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States

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Edit to add: in response to your reply and because I’ve hit my rate limit for replies (this being one of my few favourite things to rant about)…:

It’s actually a much better mix than how I thought I remembered it.

If that’s the US’s plan, it’s a good one.

I just wish the Australian government would get onboard with nuclear, and ditch the renewables for gas. We export as much LNG by volume as Qatar!

3 comments

nandomrumber

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alecco  8 hours ago

Thanks for the info. That does look like a much better composition and obviously less CO2 for same energy. I've heard the US government plan is to do gas generation aggressively for next few years to bridge untile they get all the new nuclear power plants online.

And never mind a modern power grid vs an old one causing waste of 15-16%.

zahlman  7 hours ago

The article you linked is about overall energy use, so it doesn't clearly support your numbers.

But I'm actually shocked that the US is generating that much nuclear electricity. It always comes across as mired in impossible amounts of red tape.