[Vision2020] Was "Energy saving..." 43% Of Avista Power Is Fossil Fueled

[Ted Moffett]

There is no such animal as a non-greenhouse gas emitting electricity source
(OK, there are electric eels, fireflies, and other organisms that can
generate some electricity...), not in our world where nearly every machine,
product or human activity is linked to fossil fuels... It would be hard to
power a generator with a bike to charge a battery for your computer, and not
use calories sourced using fossil fuels...Unless you grow your own food with
no fossil fuels involved!

All electrical power sources that are more favorable toward lowering
greenhouse gas emissions, hydro, nuclear (uranium mining), wind, solar,
geothermal, biofuels et. al. have a greenhouse gas impact.  Resource
extraction, manufacturing of parts, shipping, construction, maintenance and
repair cycles use fossil fuels.  Constructing and maintaining a power grid
uses fossil fuels, as well as for a dam, a nuclear power plant, or a wind
farm.  Steel production is heavily dependent on coal power, for example, so
wind turbines, or any machine or tool with steel (including new hybrid
cars), may use coal directly for its steel manufacture, or electricity
sourced from coal.  Increases in global steel production are linked to
significant increases in use of coal, such as the amazing amount of steel
being used to build the Three Gorges dam in China
( http://www.britishdams.org/current_issues/3Gorges2.pdf ) which in the long
run will be a lower CO2 emitting power source, but in the short run is
linked to dumping huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.  Info on coal
used in steel production:

http://www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=189
 **
*From URL above:*
**
*Processes*
Currently 65% of global steel is produced in Basic Oxygen Furnaces (BOF).
Coking coal is converted to coke, which is then used in the blast furnace to
smelt iron ore. The resulting molten iron is then taken to the BOF, where
steel scrap and limestone are added. A stream of high purity oxygen is blown
through the molten bath to remove impurities, leaving almost pure liquid
steel. About 0.6 tonnes of coke are required to produce 1 tonne of steel.

A further 32% of steel is produced in Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF); much of
the electricity used in this process is generated from coal-fired power
stations.
-------------------------------
I was curious several years ago about Avista power sources, given how often
you hear that we use mostly "clean" hydro in the Northwest.  Only 54% of
Avista's power is hydro, though these figures may be changing towards adding
more lower CO2 emitting renewables... Otherwise...

Avista uses fossil fuels for 43 percent of their power generation, 13% from
coal, 30% from natural gas, according to a December 2007 article quoted
below.  Thus every day Moscow residents are likely using coal or natural gas
fossil fuels for electricity.  I have "official" documents from Avista
somewhere (lost in my cyberspace files) that support this breakdown of
Avista power generation sources.  Natural gas emits less CO2 and is more
efficient for electricity generation than coal power, but it is still a
greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuel, unless using CO2 sequestration.  No way
that Avista reserves using fossil fuel sources for only peak power
generation times:

http://www.spokanejournal.com/spokane_id=article&sub=3399

>From article at URL above:

Avista's energy-source mix currently is about 54 percent hydroelectric, 30
percent natural gas, 13 percent coal, 3 percent biomass (coming from a
Kettle Falls wood-burning plant that's too old to qualify as renewable under
the initiative), and 1 percent wind power.
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 7/10/08, Andy Boyd <moscowrecycling at turbonet.com> wrote:

> I concur with your assessment of nwest power, although I imagine at some
> peak energy times we may end up with power coming from some coal fired
> plants.
> >From an energy consumption standpoint we  need to move toward LEDs that
> use
> about a quarter of the energy of a cfl and no hazardous waste issues that I
> am aware of.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of infrastructure and $ tied up
> in cfls with a poor system for the recycling of these bulbs.
> On that note, in the near future we will be accepting cfl's at Moscow
> Recycling for no cost due to a prgram run by Avista.  I will do some
> advertising when this program begins.
> Thanks for the conversation.
> Andy Boyd
> Manager/Education Coordinator
> Moscow Recycling
> 208 882 0590
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kai Eiselein, Editor" <editor at lataheagle.com>
> To: "Andy Boyd" <moscowrecycling at turbonet.com>; "Saundra Lund"
> <sslund_2007 at verizon.net>; "'Chasuk'" <chasuk at gmail.com>
> Cc: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 4:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Energy saving lightbulbs... a different take
>
>
> > Fair enough, but I do have one minor point of contention.
> > The 200 pounds of greenhouse gasses should have been quantified if the
> > power was generated by coal or diesel, rather than lumping all power
> > generation together.
> > If I recall correctly, water, wind, solar, geo-thermal and nuclear
> > generation don't emit greenhouse gasses.
> > In an area that is served by non-burning electrical sources, the
> > greenhouse gas point is a non-issue.
> > Just a thought.....
> >
> >
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080712/fddff1b3/attachment.html