Kilowatts needed to power the city of Pittsburgh, PA [Archive]

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fourwheeler

Aug 28, 2007, 01:23 PM

I working in sales for a recycling compand and we are putting together a "Green Sheet" for our customers to show them the environmental impact of the materials they recycle.

I have already found information on the amounts of different items that are saved by 1 ton of recycled paper.

I would like to give them a "visual" idea of this impact and know how many kilowatts are needed to power the city of Pittsburgh would give them a more realistic idea of what their recycling can do.

Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Curt

retsoksirhc

Aug 28, 2007, 01:28 PM

I don't have any info about it, but I think that's a great idea. Good luck.

KISS

Aug 28, 2007, 01:59 PM

Call the power company.

tkrussell

Aug 28, 2007, 02:10 PM

Try contacting the local electric distribution utility:

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ebaines

Aug 29, 2007, 05:41 AM

Here's a back of the envelope calculation. The per capita energy consumption in the US is about 12,000 KwH/Yr: see
List of countries by electricity consumption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption)

The population of Pittsburgh is about 340,000, so the total electricity consumption per year in Pittsburgh can be guestimated to be around 4,000,000 megawatt-hours/year, or an average electricity power draw of 466 megawatts. I suspect the energy saved by recycling 1 ton of paper is a pittance compared to that!