New Hampshire

Energy and power

About 90% of all New Hampshire's electrical power was generated by water in the 1930s. By 1999, however, about 20% of the state's electricity came from coal-fired plants, another 10% from oil-fired plants, and 8% from hydroelectric facilities. Power production (utility and nonutility) totaled 16.2 billion kWh in 1999, when total installed capacity was 2.8 million kW. In 1990, the controversial nuclear power plant at Seabrook, being built by Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, began operating. Originally planned as a two-reactor, 2,300-Mw facility, Seabrook was scaled back to one 1,150 MW reactor whose cost was about five times the original $1 billion two-reactor estimate. As of 2001, the plant had a capacity of 1,161 MW and was the largest reactor in New England. Nuclear power supplied 54% of the state's electricity in 1999. In 2000 New Hampshire's total per capita energy consumption was 266 million Btu (67 million kcal), ranking it 44th among the 50 states.