Originally posted by billygoat22
I believe this has come up over on heatinghelp.com. Nuclear vs fossil fuel, etc.
Yesterday I heard that most of man's pollution doesn't even come from the US, but from all those home cooking fires in Eastern Asia/China.
Direct use makes sense, no transmission losses. But 50% eff on transmission? Come on. They boost the power to 770kV to drop the amperage, Power loss is porportional to the square of amperage so 1/2ing the amperage cuts losses to a quarter, right?
AT one time all that fossil fuel was plants and animals, which used solar energy to convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon for living cells. Its not like the stuff was NEVER there to begin with.
Actually I believe about 30% is lost during transmission. Transformers are also inefficient, and loses occur when you bring that 770kv done to household voltage.