A Huge, Huge Miss On My Part -- A Reader Bails Me Out -- November 22, 2019

I was so caught up in the anti-Greta rant I completely missed the bigger story.

Forget about pollution.

Forget about CO2 emissions.

Look at this story in terms of economic growth in this country. Folks are laser-focused on quarterly GDP of various countries around the world, and miss the long-term story. A reader sent me this. First, a re-posting of an earlier story:

Across China, a whopping 148GW of coal-fired plants are either being built or are about to begin construction, according to a report from Global Energy Monitor, a non-profit group that monitors coal stations. Putting that number in context, the current capacity of the entire EU coal fleet is 149GW, or the same as what China is about to add.

I pride myself in taking a deeper look when given numbers I can't get my arms around, but in this case I blew it. I never thought about what 148GW of coal-fired plants meant. Yes, I saw that was the "current capacity of the entire EU coal fleet" but I blew that off -- thinking that the EU coal fleet had significantly declined over the past decade.

But a reader put this in perspective:

I have found, over the years, that simply providing raw numbers is not so impactful as charts and/or relative context. 

So ... 150 Gigawatts... If one took a massive, single 1,000 Megawatt coal fired plant ... then took 150 of them ... one would arrive at that 150 Gw figure.

That is, if each state in the US - right now - started building THREE massive coal plants, the Chinese equivalent would be realized.

(The Navajo-operated Four Corners plant - now shutting down - is rated at ~2,000 Mw).

For further context/comparison, take the two (2) massive offshore wind projects proposed off New York state - Empire and Sunrise. At an effective output of just over 800 Megawatts (1,700 namplate at 48% capacity factor), these $10 BILLION boondoggles will not even equal the output of a single, 1,000 new Chinese coal plant.

Pure insanity.

 My first thought: the off-shore wind lobby is certainly very, very powerful.

But I digress.

Forget about the pollution. Forget about the CO2 emissions (FWIW -- nothing). What catches my eye: how big China is (and will be going forward). This puts in perspective how big that population is, and what the economy will need from the rest of the world in terms of food and consumer goods.

Those numbers above -- three massive coal plants in each of the 50 US states -- that simply blows me away.

And, those offshore wind projects -- yeah ... insanity.

A huge thank you to my readers for keeping me on track.

**********************************

A Very Clever Christmas Gift / Stocking Stuffer

This is perfect for .... every age group. Seriously.



It will be interesting to see how this product does over the holidays.

I remember when I was in college a representative from 3M (makers of Scotch tape). He talked about how the company brainstormed uses for adhesive, everything from Post-It notes to adhesives used in those huge green interstate signs. This seems to be another example -- 2 x 2 photo stickies.