
U.S. Energy Mapping System - teh_klev
http://www.eia.gov/state/maps.cfm
======
samcheng
Esri / ArcGIS is great for analysis, but people should know by now that it is
a terrible web-scale presentation tool. I'd guess that the majority of
visitors to this site bounced before the markers showed up!

This is classic government contractor fodder, though: I bet it works great
with only a handful of users (like during a demo).

~~~
utunga
So true. I clicked the link. Tried to work out what it does. Decided the map
had nothing on it at all. Wondered if maybe that's why hn was linking to it,
so came back here to see. If I hadn't read your comment above I would never
have seen the actual content of this thing.

------
brownbat
Neat, you can explore all sorts of comparisons.

It's interesting how renewables are basically absent from the deep south,
apparently because there aren't as many renewable resources there.

Calm winds weren't surprising, but I was caught off guard to see that
Mississippi and Alabama don't have the same solar potential as states to their
west and east at the same latitude.

Wood power plants are huge there and along the coasts, I thought those were
only used in third world countries.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
The largest power station in Europe is partially converting from burning coal
to wood (or biomass) much of which apparently is supplied from the southern
US.

It's a bit complex as to whether this is a good thing or not. The main worry
is the source of the wood. They claim it's mostly leftovers from sawmills
which would be fine if true, but some have thrown doubt on that claim.

~~~
Dylan16807
If is wasn't scrap, wouldn't it still be from tree farms, and not a problem?

~~~
fineIllregister
Farms, maybe. Not without problems, though:

> In North Carolina, the heaviest logging is occurring in flood plains and
> wetlands that are among the region’s most productive natural habits. In
> Georgia, where most of the trees for wood pellets are grown on pine
> plantations, natural forests are rapidly disappearing as landowners see new
> opportunities to make money, said Ben Larson, forestry and bio-energy
> program manager for the National Wildlife Federation.

> The landscapes most at risk, Larson said, are traditional Southern savannas
> with a canopy of tall pines and an understory of grass and shrubs that
> provide food and shelter for wildlife. With more land converted to pines to
> make wood pellets, the vital understory is disappearing, replaced by stands
> of fast-growing pines that are raised as a cash drop.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/how-e...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-
europes-climate-policies-have-led-to-more-trees-cut-down-in-the-
us/2015/06/01/ab1a2d9e-060e-11e5-bc72-f3e16bf50bb6_story.html)

------
p1mrx
It needs some way to filter or scale by power output; currently, there's no
visual distinction between Diablo Canyon and some random Bloom Box
installation, which makes the map pretty much uninterpretable.

------
fnordfnordfnord
The landing page has a map, but where are the interesting overlays? Strike
that. Maybe they weren't planning on having a bunch of visitors. Lots of stuff
popped up after a few minutes.

~~~
wahsd
It's a government agency that used some horrible contract vehicle to contract
with a horribly inadequate contractor to build something half-assed. That's
why performance is bad and I guarantee won't be notably better on even the
best day.

My guess is that map cost about $150,000. I'd go look through records to find
out if I had the time.

~~~
cwmma
sadly it's not anything that malicious, they're just using a wms type map
setup which involves requesting a bounding box of the viewing extent and the
server responding back with it, it's really really bad because it's impossible
to cache and really slow. But sadly it's a 'standard' that many gis people
think is a good idea.

~~~
jessaustin
I appreciate the technical details, but this doesn't really contradict the
parent. It's very possible that "horrible contractors" would implement ill-
considered "best practices" like the one you describe.

------
matopher
Neat idea, disappointing execution. I actually just worked on a site with a
similar concept. I think it delivers more palatable results, but I'd love to
hear what others think: [http://usofenergy.com](http://usofenergy.com)

