Records are falling all around in California.
A heat wave has been setting record temperatures. And then on Monday, California set a record for all-time peak electricity usage. From the NYT:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state agencies to reduce electricity consumption by 25 percent, acting on a prediction from the state's power grid managers that demand would peak at 52,000 megawatts, a mark they had not expected to reach until 2011. Demand peaked at 50,270 megawatts at 2:44 p.m. Pacific time, breaking the record of 49,036 megawatts set last Friday.
More heat = more electricity usage.
More electricity usage = more carbon emissions.
More carbon emissions = ... you get the idea.
Comments
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ffletcher Posted 6:00 am
25 Jul 2006
This heat wave is a strong one, with humidity that we have not seen in about ten years. On top of that the over night low did not dip below 76. More conservation, peak load management, and efficiency is needed as well. As well as better outage management.
Looking forward to this next wave solar photovoltaic.
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tracy Posted 10:23 pm
25 Jul 2006
There's an implicit confusion in the post -- it is possible, fairly likely in fact, that the "heating" created by yesterday's "record demand" in CA is LESS than the record heating [=energy consumed], or even fairly mild compared to the record.
The point of the posting was a good one, the well-done prose brings out the "vicious spiral." But it's always good to strive to keep the physics straight. - tracy
- tracy
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