Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw
I heard or read somewhere that when demand dropped in the Spanish electrical grid, it was the wind farms that were taken offline, not the conventional power plants.
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That's not likely to happen in America. We don't have very many wind farms built (
2% of our total generation).
We are becoming too vested in going 'Green' to do cut off our green power,
even if the cost of shutting off other power plants is excessively expensive.
Our reduced demand is likely going to be a lot higher than 2% in the coming years.
The average drop for the next decade really depends on the political situation after 2012.
We dropped 5% last year..
U.S. energy use in record drop - Aug. 26, 2010
2008:
Surprise Drop in Power Use Delivers Jolt to Utilities - WSJ.com
Just guessing, 2010 will show a 7 to 10 percent drop, with 2011 up around 15 percent.
As we cut our usage, the rates will climb, encouraging more conservation,
thus causing higher rates.. Creating a runaway feed-back loop.
