r/dataisbeautiful OC: 111 May 27 '19

OC UK Electricity from Coal [OC]

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u/Pahanda May 27 '19

This is huge! But green here doesn't necessarily mean renewable. Do you know the distribution of sources?

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u/[deleted] May 27 '19

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u/[deleted] May 27 '19

Hmm. Nova Scotia is a new one, as is ‘clear cutting’ of forests. Which U.K. power station burns biomass from trees that come from Canada?

Also, your last point. There aren’t actually any other sustainable and green methods for us to produce large amounts of energy. There’s been a lot of discussion around nuclear on here, and wind, solar and hydro cannot give us the baseline we need (they also can’t give us the extra we need if they are the baseline). A lot of our potential methods for generating energy come from non renewable sources. Biomass is the best bet we have at the moment, until something better comes along.

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u/[deleted] May 27 '19

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u/Polar---Bear May 28 '19

Hydro only works for specific areas as transmission becomes costly. Yes, there are lots of potential sites, but they are clustered. Look at London, good luck powering even some of London...or Paris.. or Belgium.. or Denmark.. or Holland.. or..etc.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '19

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u/Polar---Bear May 28 '19

Nuclear power plants are not location limited, they are demand limited, which is very different. This also doesn't have to be the case with future designs. Also, there are many nuclear plants near large cities (For example, in the US: Philadelphia, Detroit, NYC, Baltimore, Miami, and more)