On Tuesday, August 29, 2006, at 12:40 AM, joseph lance wrote:
> Joe:
>
> Only a very small % of electric utility plants have ever been fired
> with oil.
>
Let's change "have ever been" to "nowadays are". Diesel plants used to
be common -- before natural gas was in wide distribution, diesel (okay,
oil-fired) reciprocating engine plants were the best bet to generate
relatively small amounts of electricity in locations where a coal-fired
plant wasn't economical for reasons of difficulty in getting coal to
the site, or of building a small coal plant. Diesels could be fired up
and generating within a short time, like today's gas plants -- so they
were good for peak-load work, too. And with bore and stroke measured
in feet, they were impressive to view, too!
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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