To the Editor:
We all enjoy the luxury of electricity 24/7, 365 days a year. How is electricity produced in the U.S.? The following numbers are from 2013:
Dependable Power: coal power plants, 39.3 percent; natural gas, 27.6 percent; nuclear 19.5 percent; hydro (dams) 6.7 percent; petroleum .07 percent.
Non-dependable power ( need a subsidy from taxpayers to build): wind 4.2 percent; solar and other, 2.1 percent.
The average output of wind turbines in the U.S. is 34 percent of the time. Solar is less than 30 percent.
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The find farm north of Avon received $2.9 million dollar subsidy from the taxpayers of South Dakota and they inflated the number of jobs that would be created from five actual to 30 in their request.
Many people don't want to hear the word "nuclear," which is a clean power source of electricity. At the present time a nuclear submarine is being built that will be named "South Dakota;" it can operate for 34 years without needing to be refueled. If nuclear power is safe for a submarine it should be safe for a power plant that produces dependable power and not just 34 percent of the time.
Ed VanGerpen
Avon
