Us Energy Flows, LLNL
I’m not used to girls being that quiet unless they’re medicated. Normally I go out with girls who talk so much you could hook them up to a wind turbine and they could power a small New Hampshire town. — Adrian.
Ivo Welch
December 31, 2021
What magnitudes are we talking about?
Without magnitudes, you have only platitudes.
Everything in this course is huge.
Power: Lifting weight at specific rate.
Boffins measure power in Watts.
1 Joule per second = 1 Watt
1 horsepower is 0.75 Kilo-Watts.
We have to operate in huge numbers:
Metric system: K, M, G, T, P.
P = 1,000 trillion = 1 million million.
| Activity | Watts |
|---|---|
| Lifting 1 kg at rate of 1m/10secs | 1W |
| Light bulb, 800 lmn, LED | 10W |
| Incandescent 800 lmn | 60W |
| Activity | Watts |
|---|---|
| Human | |
| at rest (metabolism) | 100W |
| cycling (metabolism) | 600W |
| output at pedals | 150W |
| Car engine, 100hp, max power output | 75,000W |
| 65mph, typical power | 15,000W |
| Activity | Watts |
|---|---|
| Solar Power, per sqm | 1,360W |
| Ground, per sqm | 1,000W |
| Solar Cell, per sqm | 150W |
| Typ Roof Solar | 6,000W |
| Typ 50m Wind Turbine | 2,500,000W |
| Typ Coal Plant | 600,000,000W |
| Typ Nuclear Plant | 1,500,000,000W |
| Activity | Watts |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin Mining, 2020 | 7,000,000,000W |
| Activity | Watts |
|---|---|
| USA | |
| Avg US Electric Only | 450,000,000,000W |
| Peak US Electric | 789,480,000,000W |
| Instlld US Electric Power | 1,200,000,000,000W |
| Avg Total Primary | 3,000,000,000,000W |
| World | |
| Avg Global Electricity | 2,600,000,000,000W |
| Avg Global Total Primary | 18,000,000,000,000W |
| All Life (living things) | 130,000,000,000,000W |
Power applied for time.
Power is rate is per time. Energy is rate per time multiplied by time.
We will use (Kilo)Watt-hours for energy.
There are many other energy measures
We have to operate in huge numbers:
| Activity | Watt-Hours |
|---|---|
| Lift/drop 60 kg meters | 1 Wh |
| LED bulb, 800 lumen, 1h | 10 Wh |
| incandescent, 1h | 60 Wh |
| Cyclist Pedal Output, 1h | 150 Wh |
| Food Diet, 2000 (k)cal, 1day | 2,300 Wh |
| Automobile, 100hp/2, One Commute, 1h | 35,000 Wh |
| Tesla Battery Model 3 | 75,000 Wh |
| Activity | Watt-Hours |
|---|---|
| pPpD, Africa | 10,000 Wh |
| pPpD, EU | 100,000 Wh |
| pPpD, USA | 200,000 Wh |
| pPpD, Electr USA | 30,000 Wh |
| Roundtrip Flight, LA-FRA, 11h*2 | 10,000,000 Wh |
| Activity | Watt-Hours |
|---|---|
| LED, 800lum, 2h/d | 7,500 Wh |
| 60 “Wall-Warts” | 189,000 Wh |
| Air Conditioning | 3,500,000 Wh |
| All Household Elec (US) | 10,600,000 Wh |
| Car Commute, 1h/day | 13,000,000 Wh |
| Activity | Watt-Hours |
|---|---|
| Roof Solar, 20 panels | 13,000,000 |
| Typ Wind Turbine | 3,285,000,000 |
| Typ Coal Plant, if 24/7 | 4,380,000,000,000 |
| … typ utilized rate | 2,628,000,000,000 |
| Average US Nuclear Plant | 10,000,000,000,000 |
| Activity | Watt-Hours |
|---|---|
| Global Bitcoin Mining, 2020 | 67,000,000,000,000 |
| Activity | Watt-Hours |
|---|---|
| U.S. Electricity | 4,000,000,000,000,000 |
| World Electricity | 23,000,000,000,000,000 |
| U.S. Primary Energy | 26,000,000,000,000,000 |
| World Primary Energy | 165,000,000,000,000,000 |
165 “Peta-Wh” = 165 million gigawatt-hours.
Careful: read about nominal and nameplate power, as well as primary energy.
Understand differences in how power and energy are quoted
Nameplate, primary, secondary.
See book.