Talk:Electricity sector of the United States

Sweden and Europe versus the USA
Since Sweden and the USA are equal economies, it is relevant to compare the energy plans and potential for renewables. This comparison try to address the point: How realistic is renewable energy in the USA? In 2009 total electricity use was about equal: in Sweden 14,881 KWh/person and in the USA 13,642 TWh/person. ref Energiläget 2010 Sweden The USA produced 838 TWh  nuclear (19 %) of  total electricity 4 344 TWh in 2008. Sweden produced nuclear 50 TWh (37 %) of total electricity 134 TWh in 2009. Swedish national plan is to add 28 TWh wind electricity between 2010-2020 (total 30 TWh). This is over 19 % of its electricity. According my national plan comparison: If the USA invested in the wind power equal volume relative to energy use as Sweden, the USA would be nuclear free in 2020 . 838 TWh nuclear power use in US was 3 % compared to its total primary energy. Total primary energy of the USA including all energy losses was 26,560 TWh (2283,72 toe) in 2008. ref IEA key stat 2010. Wind in power 2010 European statistics EWEA February 2011 page 11 The EU wind capacity at the end 2010 (84 GW) will produce 181 TWh of electricity, representing 5.3% of the EU’s gross final electricity consumption. EWEA’s prediction is 581-680 TWh  wind power in Europe in 2020. Energy efficiency and other renewables are also included in the European plans. ref EWEA March 2011 pages tables 43-47, national plan 58 Watti Renew (talk) 18:49, 25 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The Swedish target of 30 TWh of wind power in 2020 is the recommendation of the Swedish Energy Agency. The Swedish government asked for a recommendation from the Agency in 2007. ref. Nytt planeringsmål för vindkraften år 2020 ER 2007:45 Swedish Energy Agency page 27


 * The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive includes National Renewable Energy Action Plans from each member country. According to these national plans in 2010: The Swedish government plan was only 4,547 MW - 12.5 TWh (8%) in 2020. This is conservative politics, and citing Al Gore politics is renewable. The Swedish Energy Agency gave its energy expert recommendation (2007) for Sweden 30 TWh wind power by 2020.


 * In wind power there are more ambitious governments than the Swedish one in Europe: Wind power installations were (2010) in Sweden 2,163 MW and the Netherlands 2,245 MW. The Netherlands has plan to increase wind power to 12 GW (32 TWh) and 24 % of its electricity consumption by 2020. This means about 10 GW increase in the Netherlands compared to 2.5 GW in Sweden at the same period. ref EWEA March 2011 pages 61, 64


 * 24 % of electricity consumption is more than the share of nuclear power (19 %) in the United States. Wind power does not need fuel. Watti Renew (talk) 17:51, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Statement in Electricity generation section
The following phrase in the section on Electricity Generation, while mostly true, is not true in all cases. while wind turbines and solar plants produce electricity when they can.

The reason is that MISO in the U.S. operates a small portion of its wind generation portfolio as load following when it needs more load following capabilities. When the wind is available, wind generation can quickly and easily be curtailed or brought back up to power. This is used to smooth out the wind power generation and to provide power for sudden load increases.

I'm not sure it is of sufficient notahilbility to be included in the article. Source for this information is the MISO web site. --66.41.154.0 (talk) 03:39, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Transmission and Distribution
Curious why the section on transmission and distribution doesn't have any data about the age of the grid, the line loss of the grid, the total length of the grid, you know, basic data about electrical transmission and distribution. Would be wonderful if it did, like the Electricity Sector pages for other countries. 123.193.10.252 (talk) 03:18, 23 August 2019 (UTC)