I just helped build an infographic about how we consume electricity around the house and how we can reduce the amount we use. So tell me what you think about this chart that was provided to me by a reader. Let’s talk this story out for a change!
Major uses
In 1999, a study by Mark. P. Mills [33] of the Green Earth Society reported that computers consumed 13% of the entire US supply. Numerous researchers questioned Mills’ methodology and it was later demonstrated that he was off by an order of magnitude; for example, Lawrence Berkeley Labs concluded that the figure was nearer three percent of US electricity use.
Although the Mills study was inaccurate,[34][35][36] it helped drive the debate to the national level, and in 2006 the US Senate started a study of the energy consumption of Server farms. (Source: Wikipedia)
That United States has and continues to get most of its electrical production from conventional thermal power plants. Most of these are coal; however, the 1990s and 2000s have seen a disproportionate increase in natural gas and other kinds of gas powered plants.
From 1992 to 2005 some 270,000 MWe (Megawatt electric) of new gas-fired plant were built, but only 14,000 MWe of new nuclear and coal-fired capacity came on line, mostly coal, with 2,315 MWe of that being nuclear.[26] Nuclear and coal are considerably more capital intensive when compared to gas, and the great shift to gas plant construction is often attributed to deregulation and other political and economic factors.
As of January 2008 the American Wind Energy Association estimated that U.S. wind power, capacity as 16,818 MW, sufficient to power 4.5 million homes.
The largest wind facility in the U.S. and the world is in Roscoe Texas, costing more than $1 billion and providing 781.5 MW of power (enough for 230,000 homes throughout Texas, which has more wind power generation capacity than any other state and all but four countries.).
Several solar thermal power generating facilities like the new 64 MW Nevada Solar One and the SEGS group of plants in the Mojave Desert with a total generating capacity of 354 MW, making the system the largest solar plant of any kind in the world.
In 2007, summer demand for electricity was 783 GW and 640 GW for winter. By 2017, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) projects summer consumption to be 925GW for summer and 756 GW for winter.
