| ALL-ELECTRIC AMERICA A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future S. David Freeman Leah Y. Parks Solar Flare Press, January 2016 |
Rating: 4.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-9961747-2-5 | ||||
| ISBN 0-9961747-2-9 | 223pp. | SC/BWI | $12.98 | |
| Page 5: | "In 2015 China planned to install roughly 40,000 megawatts of new renewable power and by 2030 is committed to add a total of 800,000 to one million megawatts of greenhouse gas free energy..." |
| Word order: S/B "is committed to add by 2030". |
| Page 5: | "In 2015 China planned to install roughly 40,000 megawatts of new renewable power and by 2030 is committed to add a total of 800,000 to one million megawatts of greenhouse gas free energy..." |
| Inconsistent number styles: S/B "800,000 to 1,000,000 megawatts". |
| Page 5: | "In 2015 China planned to install roughly 40,000 megawatts of new renewable power and by 2030 is committed to add a total of 800,000 to one million megawatts of greenhouse gas free energy..." |
| Missing hyphens: S/B "greenhouse-gas-free". |
| Page 5: | "The production of electricity will steadily replace the consumption of fossil fuels." |
| Incomplete: S/B "The production of electricity from renewable sources will steadily replace electricity generated by the combustion of fossil fuels." Also, fossil fuels have other uses than the production of electricity, so it makes no sense to suggest all consumption of them will stop. |
| Page 13: | "The exciting prospect was a car that ran on hydrogen, the most plentiful element on Earth and emitted only water vapor." |
| Missing comma: S/B "on Earth, and". |
| Page 13: | "Hydrogen produced from solar power directly can be a huge new GHG free source of energy." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "a huge new GHG-free source". |
| Page 14: | "Fortunately, research is underway to discover..." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 17: | "The announcement of lower prices for batteries by Tesla on April 30, 2015, is resulting in making these predictions come true much sooner than expected." |
| Incorrect tense: S/B "will result". |
| Page 17: | "...the gas released is made up largely of methane—the most potent of the greenhouse gases—and that not all of the methane being pumped out of the earth is burned..." |
| Overstated: Methane is more potent than CO2, but certain refrigerants are still more potent. See Main Greenhouse Gases. |
| Pages 21-22: | "Heating of buildings and transportation, fueled by oil and natural gas are not even part of most of the debate." |
| Missing comma: S/B "natural gas, are not". |
| Page 26: | "Jim Huges, CEO of First Solar, has said that, they are 'regularly bidding in at'..." |
| Extra comma: S/B "has said that they are". |
| Page 32: | "Other estimates calculate that wind turbines cause .27 avian fatalities per GWh of electricity generated..." |
| Missing zero: S/B "0.27". |
| Page 36: | "Even solar thermal plants store some of their solar heat to generate electricity at night and thus function as reliably as a gas-fired plant." |
| Inaccurate, AFAIK: storage in solar thermal plants does not yet support power production for an entire night. |
| Page 39: | "Some benefits include, customer bill offsets, avoided distribution outages, avoided transmission line upgrades, and deferred investments in excess generation capacity for..." |
| Punctuation: S/B "include: customer bill offsets; avoided distribution outages; avoided transmission line upgrades; and deferred investments in excess generation capacity". |
| Page 41: | "It is estimated that 5,242 MW of new solar and 4,050 MW of new wind was added in 2014..." |
| Number: S/B "were added". |
| Page 41: | "What is needed is to enlarge the mandates that require a growing percent of renewable electricity..." |
| Usage: S/B "a growing percentage". |
| Page 47: | "Dave, when he lead the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1978..." |
| Verb tense: S/B "when he led". |
| Page 49: | "Home and building energy management systems, smart technology, and advanced metering has provided..." |
| Number: S/B "have". |
| Page 54: | "The U.S. electric power industry, which has an under 50% asset utilization factor and faces a near no-growth future..." |
| Surely this cannot be under 50%? |
| Page 58: | "The main hurdle for the electric car is its relatively high up front cost and limited range." |
| Number: S/B "hurdles" and "are". |
| Page 61: | "There are no fuel costs for solar and wind maintenance and it is thus virtually inflation-proof." |
| Word choice: S/B "production". Both solar and wind power facilities require maintenance, which involves fuel use. |
| Page 61: | "There are no fuel costs for solar and wind maintenance and it is thus virtually inflation-proof." |
| Usage: S/B "these methods of power production are". |
| Page 63: | "It is popular these days to say that the price of natural gas is low and therefore is good for the consumer." |
| Missing words: S/B "and therefore natural gas is good for the consumer". Saying low prices are good for the consumer is a truism. |
| Page 65: | "There are no moving parts and virtually no maintenance [for solar]." |
| Incorrect. Solar panels will need cleaning, and there may be wiring problems or damage from falling objects to fix. |
| Pages 67-8: | "The inherent nature of how we price electricity compared to oil and gas make it much better option for the consumer." |
| Missing word, number: S/B "makes it a much better option". |
| Page 76: | "The reality is that, although Btu for Btu, natural gas produces less carbon dioxide, we actually use significantly more natural gas than coal." |
| Misplaced comma, capitalization: S/B "that although, BTU for BTU,". |
| Page 78: | "Stanford-lead and Harvard-lead studies have further put the EPA's numbers into question." |
| Verb tense: S/B "Stanford-led and Harvard-led". |
| Page 80: | Figure 5 is poorly labeled. |
| What do the numbers below the four columns mean? |
| Page 82: | "Once the revised rules are effective, any infrastructure before August 23, 2011, will remain only subject to voluntary efforts." |
| Missing word, extra comma: S/B "any infrastructure built before August 23, 2011". |
| Page 85: | "The United Nation's International Panel of Climate Control has determined..." |
| Misplaced apostrophe, incorrect title: S/B "United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change". |
| Page 85: | "The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) was scheduled in Paris with the intention of developing a legally binding agreements on this safe limit." |
| Either extra word or number error: S/B "legally binding agreements" or "a legally binding agreement". |
| Page 88: | "Calls by some to renew our committment to nuclear power also ignores its dangers and its high cost." |
| Number: S/B "ignore". |
| Page 90: | "...and costs are presently so high that solar and wind energy is now a bargain in comparison." |
| Number: S/B "are now bargains". |
| Page 91: | "If one reads the financial pages of 'American Press' there is nothing but joy over the oil and fracking boom." |
| Terminology: I know of no publication titled "American Press".1 Also this is factually incorrect; the financial pages would also cover the bankruptcies of coal companies as well as lawsuits over pollution and earthquakes resulting from fracking. |
| Page 97: | "—they were just the first step toward the breeder reactors, which were promised to the public as a 'Pacific Ocean of energy,' a 'too large to measure' source of energy." |
| There is no citation for these quotes, and I'm not sure of their provenance. The second one looks like a distorted version of "too cheap to meter". |
| Page 101: | "The American people, when asked to compare nuclear with solar and wind, know better than the so-called experts." |
| For sufficiently restricted values of "so-called experts", I trust. (Or are the authors channelling Don McLeroy?) |
| Page 111: | "In the plan we present later, we recommend a sizeable tax credit for both car owners and manufacturers and comparable incentives for cities as well." |
| In other words, a subsidy — something they object to when it is applied to fossil fuels or nuclear power. |
| Page 137: | "None can question that abundant wind and solar power are available to Los Angeles, which combined with storage, can substitute for coal-fired plants." |
| Missing comma: S/B "which, combined with storage,". |
| Page 138: | "The best estimates that Dave found in his book, 'Winning our Energy Independence', in 2007 was..." |
| By custom, book titles are presented in italics, not enclosed in quotation marks. This explains the presentation of "American Press" on page 91 (though not the origin of that title.) |
| Page 138: | "...in 2007 was the total power the city could ultimately generate from all of these sources were: 5,000 MW from solar, 13,000 MW from wind, and 750 MW from municipal waste..." |
| Number error, clumsy wording: S/B "of the total power levels the city could ultimately generate from all of these sources were:". |
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