In the United States approximately 67% of power production is from fossil fuels, 39% being from coal.
Fuel and utilities purchased by the Utilities Department annually totals
68,000 tons of Indiana coal, 3.4M therms of natural gas with transportation, 229M kW hours of 12.5 kV power, and (771M gallons of water and sewage)*not used for calculations*,
In one year how many KWh of electricity could be generated with the amount of coal IU purchases? (1 short ton (2,000lbs) of standard coal = 19.34 million BTU of energy and Coal = 10,498 Btu/kWh)?
In one year how much electricity could be generated with the amount of natural gas IU purchases?
How much total electricity does IU use if we included the possible electrical generation from purchased sources as well as coal and natural gas possible generation?
Explain why we would need to consider different efficiencies of power production from different sources of power generation.
What are some negative impacts of using coal? (Be specific)
How much land would be necessary to produce the same amount of energy IU uses from wind turbines (land use requirement 1,335 m2/Gigawatt-Hour)? Answer in acres of land and number of football fields. (Use the answer from number 3 for this calculation)
What are some positive and negative attributes of the use of wind turbines to generate electricity? (Be specific)
Part 1. Is it feasible to produce energy with wind turbines in Indiana? Use this link to look at the wind