How many watts of electricity does it take to produce 1 ton of Carbon Dioxide?

Question

I hope I asked this question right and I would appreciate it if you would give me the answer that I want and not a "Who cares answer" and also some additional sites or credible resources that can back up your answer would be nice thanks. -Thank you

Answer 1

Energy is not measured in watts (which is power), but rather in joules (watts * seconds), or in kilowatt hours (1000 watts*hours), which is how you are probably billed on your electricity bill.  Joules are too small--nobody wants to get a bill for 36 million joules of electricity--10 kilowatt hours sounds much better.  

According to the Wikipedia article cited below, they show their derivation of 0.915 kg of C02 per kilowatt-hour.  That takes into account coal power using the average energy value of coal and the efficiency of a power plant.  That's about 2 lbs of C02 per kilowatt hour.  So a thousand kilowatt hours would produce a ton of C02.  You would get different answers if you use different types of fuel and more or less efficient power plants.  For example, natural gas power plants produce less  C02 output for the same electrical energy.  Hydroelectric and nuclear power plants produce no C02 (but they have other environmental problems), etc.  But much of the electricity in the US comes from coal.