According to the LA Times, in a front page caption (and again in the associated story) a set of geothermal plants in Northern California produces 1 million megawatts of power.
This is great news. Who would have thought that you could replace 1000 nuclear power plants -- enough energy to power all the homes in the United States, five times over -- with a handful of geothermal plants? Of course, the locals are complaining that the plants are causing the ground to settle a bit, but that's little wonder as 1 million megawatts is the same as setting off a Hiroshima bomb every 45 seconds.
But if it's in the Times, it must be truth. I mean, they fact-check and edit and all that stuff, right?
UPDATE: The Times printed a correction this morning stating that the output of the 22 geothermal plants was a combined 1000 megawatts -- the typical output of a large nuclear reactor -- which is probably high, but believable.
I did a double-take when I read that article too!
But then when I went back yesterday evening to look at it again, it was corrected and left me feeling like I was imagining things. I'm glad you posted that, or else I really would have thought there was something wrong with my reading comprehension skills.
Posted by: cybele at April 13, 2004 02:18 PM