Alternative power sources megathread?

[IDNeon]

Just now, swansont said:

TW and GW are units of power, not energy. TW per year is not a meaningful unit

Maybe not but it can be converted. Power plants are rated in terms of exactly that. So how much average electricity is produced by a 1GW nuclear reactor per year? 

Revised figure for aluminum production is 28.9Gwh consumed per year

[swansont]

2 minutes ago, IDNeon said:

Maybe not but it can be converted. Power plants are rated in terms of exactly that. So how much average electricity is produced by a 1GW nuclear reactor per year? 

If you mean TW-year, then it’s 223380 TWh (8760 hours per year)

What’s your source? They probably got the units correct.

 

I think this refers to 2000

https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2003/data/papers/SS03_Panel1_Paper02.pdf

Quote

Primary aluminum electrolytic cells are the nationís single largest electric energy consumer using 57.6 x 10^9 kWh annually, or 1.5% of all the electricity consumed by the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the U.S. economy.

57.6 TWh

Your number is a tad high.

[IDNeon]

8 minutes ago, swansont said:

Your number is a tad high

It maybe varied with the years? I went with US aluminum tonnage per year. 1.7 million tons smelter.

I based the power use on Alcoas claim of 13kw per ton. Or 15kw per Ton industry average. 

I only picked aluminum as an example of an extremely high single use of electricity. 

Not intending it to be thought of as the sole use of US energy. Perhaps I should have clarified that part.

1.5% of all production for one use is really high.

Edited May 2, 2021 by IDNeon

[swansont]

8 minutes ago, IDNeon said:

It maybe varied with the years? I went with US aluminum tonnage per year. 1.7 million tons smelter.

I based the power use on Alcoas claim of 13kw per ton. Or 15kw per Ton industry average. 

I think Alcoa probably used proper units. 

Her’s another source. 

https://agmetalminer.com/2015/11/24/power-costs-the-production-primary-aluminum/

Quote

Although the newest smelters can be closer to 12,500 kWh per ton, let’s say most smelters are consuming electricity at 14,500-15,000 kWh/ton 

15 kwh per kg, or 15,000 kwh per ton

That gets you to 25.5 TWh for 1.7 million tons

[IDNeon]

But to be honest I thought somewhere I heard 20% of US power was going to aluminum. Maybe that was all industry. Either way I'll reneg some on the idea aluminum is a back breaking consumer.

1 minute ago, swansont said:

15 kwh per kg, or 15,000 kwh per ton

This is what I meant. I'm actually a little preoccupied at this very moment and was driving 10 minutes ago (I have a bad habit).

So I didn't reconstruct my own Google search on this.

But if you just reverse what I originally said with dividing by 1,700,000 it'd come out to that per ton figure. Was just some back of napkin stuff.