EXAMPLE LETTER TO PUBLIC OFFICIAL

Nottingham Ladies League
7 Priory Lane
Sherwood Forest

July 17, 1189

His Majesty King Richard
Winchester Palace
Winchester

May it please your Majesty:

The League of Women Voters has long and vigorously advocated for efficient and effective human services. We, in Nottingham County, are proud to have a superb Anti-Poverty Agency, directed by Robin of Locksley. They have struggled against great odds to provide essential services to the least of your subjects.

However, I regret to report that the Sheriff of Nottingham has undertaken a vicious campaign to abolish this Anti-Poverty Agency. He even refers to our Robin as Robin Hood, as if he were a common criminal. This Sheriff has even applied violence to obtain his goal.

We urge your Highness to remove this remove this miscreant from office and replace him with someone who has the interests of the County's poor at heart.

I remain your most humble and devoted servant,

Maid Marian
Sherwood Forest

Ohio Alternative Energy Motor Vehicles

I have estimated the number of alternative-energy motor vehicles in Ohio. The result, in thousands, is Ethanol (E85) = 210 , Hybrids = 164, and all others = 4. The total is about 3.4 percent of the registered motor vehicles in Ohio . Percentage-wise Ohio is not very different from the U.S. as a whole.

Details of the analysis

TABLE 1:ALTERNATIVE ENERGY VEHICLES, Millions [a]

	Total	Alternative Energy	Percent Alternative
US	252	10.9	4.3
Ohio	11.1	0.37	3.4
Percent Ohio	4.4	3.2	N/A

[a] Data for 2008; Registrations from RITA/BTS are accurate; see table 2, below, for estimates of number of alternative energy vehicles.

TABLE 2: KINDS OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY MOTOR VEHICLES

	E85 [b], Millions	E85 [b], Percent	Hybrid [c], Millions	Hybrid [c], Percent	Other [d], Millions	Other [d], Percent
US	7.1 [e]	65	3.7 [f]	34	0.3	2
Ohio	0.210 [e]	56	0.16 [f]	43	~ 0 [g]	1

[b] Ethanol-capable vehicles, also known as flex-fuel.

[c] Gasoline-electric hybrids only.

[d] Compressed Natural Gas, All-Electric, Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Liquid Natural Gas, Liquid Petroleum Gas.

[e] Data from EIA. For E85; they report both US total and number of fleet vehicles, with fleet vehicles being 1/16 of total. For Ohio, they only report fleet vehicles and this number was multiplied by 16 to provide the entry in Table 2.

[f] EIA sales data show that all but a negligible number of hybrids are light vehicles. R.L. Polk 2008 data show that 2.6 percent of all light vehicles are hybrids and this result was used to calculate the table entries.

[g] Actual number = 4,200

Wind Capability

I have been skeptical of the claims that covering South Dakota with wind turbines could provide electricity for the entire country. But it checks out by adapting the analysis of MacKay (p.265).

MacKay envisions a square array of windmills spaced 5d apart (d = blade length), and finds that they provide power of 2.2 W/m^2, independent of d (large d = wider spacing and the effects cancel out).

A hexagonal array can be more densely packed (area ratio = 16.2/25). Also I took the typical wind speed in SD as 8 m/s (MacKay use 6 m/s). As a result, MacKay's power of 2.2 W/m^2 becomes 8 W/m^2. Since the area of SD is 2*10^11 m^2, the total wind power becomes 1600 GW. Assuming a wind-turbine capacity factor of about 1/3, the electrical energy becomes 4.2*10^12 kWH (4,200 TWh), which is about annual US usage.

Elliot (MacKay, p,234) comes up with the same number when estimating the practical potential of wind power. He says that we could carve a California-size chunk out of the wind states without too much disruption.

Ohio Coal

Ohio annual coal production peaked at around 50 million tons in 1970, when the first clean air act was passed. It has steadily declined since to about 25 million tons. A century ago there were about 50,000 miners compared to about 2,500 today.

ODNR Geofacts No. 14 (2005)

Ohio Electric Data

Calculated from USDOE-EERE and Census Bureau data:

Residential electrical usage on Ohio = 13,000 kWh annually per household

Average monthly household bill = c. $108

Annual residential utility income = $B4.36

Total utility income = $B13.55

Ohio rates average about 4.7% below the national average.

Switchgrass Potential

Switchgrass gives 14.4*10^6 BTU/Ton

Chariton used 15,000 Tons to produce 19*10^6 kWh -> 11.4*10^6 BTU/kWh

If 3413 BTU = 1 kWh, Chariton was 30% efficient.

Ohio produces 10.3*10^Tons annually -> 13*10^9 kWh

We only use 420 Tons -> 3% of potential

If Ohio electricity usage is flat at 155*10^9 kwh/yr, and SB221 requires 1/8 of electricity from renewables, biomass could produce 2/3 of what is required.

(also see 07/23/09)

Electricity Statistics -2. Renewable Percentages

Electricity Capacity and Consumption

Percentages for U.S. and Ohio


Technology, U.S., Ohio

Biomass, 12, 49
Geothermal, 9, *
Hydroelectric, 69, 48
Solar, 0.2, *
Wind, 10, 2

* = Too small to report

All data from EIA databases for 2007 (latest as of 08/01/09)