It graphs global energy consumption from onwards. We look at these two methodologies, how they differ, and what effect this has on energy statistics in detail here.
Demand for energy is growing across many countries in the world, as people get richer and populations increase. If this increased demand is not offset by improvements in energy efficiency elsewhere, then our global energy consumption will continue to grow year-on-year. Growing energy consumption makes the challenge of transitioning our energy systems away from fossil fuels towards low-carbon sources of energy more difficult: new low-carbon energy has to meet this additional demand and try to displace existing fossil fuels in the energy mix.
This interactive chart shows how global energy consumption has been changing from year-to-year. The change is given as a percentage of consumption in the previous year. We see that global energy consumption has increased nearly every year for more than half a century. The exceptions to this are in the early s, and following the financial crisis. How much primary energy does each country produce? This measures energy generation before trade.
This interactive chart shows primary energy consumption country-by-country. It is the sum of total energy consumption, including electricity, transport and heating.
We look at electricity consumption individually later in this article. To maintain consistency with all of the other energy data we present, we have converted primary energy into terawatt-hours rather than million tonnes of oil equivalents, or alternative energy units. When we look at total energy consumption, differences across countries often reflect differences in population size: countries with lots of people inevitably consume more energy than tiny countries. This interactive chart shows per capita energy consumption.
We see vast differences across the world. The average person in these countries consumes as much as times more than the average person in some of the poorest countries. In fact, the true differences between the richest and poorest might be even greater. This is because they often use very little commercially-traded energy sources such as coal, oil, gas, or grid electricity and instead rely on traditional biomass — crop residues, wood and other organic matter that is difficult to quantify.
Globally, primary energy consumption has increased nearly every year for at least half a century. But this is not the case everywhere in the world.
Energy consumption is rising in many countries where incomes are rising quickly and the population is growing. But in many countries — particularly richer countries trying to improve energy efficiency — energy consumption is actually falling.
This interactive chart shows the annual growth rate of energy consumption. Negative values indicate its energy consumption was lower than the previous year. We previously looked at total energy consumption. This is the sum of energy used for electricity, transport and heating. Electricity in the United States often travels long distances from generating facilities to local distribution substations through a transmission grid of nearly , miles of high-voltage transmission lines.
Generating facilities provide power to the grid at low voltage, from volts V in small generating facilities to 22 kilovolts kV in larger power plants. Once electricity leaves a generating facility, the voltage is increased, or "stepped up," by a transformer typical ranges of kV to kV to minimize the power losses over long distances. As electricity is transmitted through the grid and arrives in the load areas, the voltage is stepped down by substation transformers ranges of 69 kV to 4.
All-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles represent a new demand for electricity, but they are not likely to strain much of our existing generation resources in the near term. Large increases in the number of these vehicles in the United States will not necessarily require the addition of new electricity-generation capacity depending on when, where, and at what power level the vehicles are charged.
Demand for electricity rises and falls, depending on time of day and time of year. Electricity production, transmission, and distribution capacity must be able to meet demand during times of peak use; but most of the time, the electricity infrastructure is not operating at its full capacity. According to deployment models developed by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL , the diversity of household electricity loads and EV loads should allow introduction and growth of the PEV market while "smart grid" networks expand.
Smart grid networks allow for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and sensing along transmission lines through smart meters, smart appliances, renewable energy resources, and energy efficient resources.
Smart grid networks may provide the capability to monitor and protect residential distribution infrastructure from any negative impacts due to increased vehicle demand for electricity because they promote charging during off-peak periods, and reduce costs to utilities, grid operators, and consumers.
For example, small-scale renewables, like solar panels on a rooftop, can both provide clean energy for vehicles and reduce demand on distribution infrastructure by generating electricity near the point of use.
The world gets its power from a massive range of resources: From traditional fossil fuels to technologies like nuclear and wind. Saudi Arabia's huge oil reserves have placed the Middle Eastern country at the center of the global energy industry. Its first well was struck in and today the oil and gas sector is responsible for around 50 percent of the country's economy, according to the oil-producing cartel OPEC. While oil may not have the best reputation among environmentalists, it is still an integral part of modern life, especially when it comes to fueling transportation such as cars and planes.
China may still be the king of coal, but its appetite for fossil fuels might just be dwindling. August saw the country produce million tons of coal, an 11 percent fall. While coal may not be as fashionable as cleaner sources such as solar and wind, it still has an important part to play. The WEC says that globally, coal consumption is growing and "expected to increase even more as developing countries expand their energy needs.
Gas is an integral part of Russia's energy mix with the country's energy giant, Gazprom , claiming that it holds the world's largest natural gas reserves. Last year saw Gazprom — which the Russian government has a majority stake in — produce The International Energy Agency describes natural gas as being "technically and financially" low risk, while it is seen as being "lower carbon relative to other fossil fuels.
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