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The Energy Pie - Use More or Conserve?
Category: EducationThis article looks at where and how we use energy and how we must conserve if we are to grow and prosper in the future.
Over the past several years we have all become painfully aware that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels likely play a significant role in worldwide climate change. Our insatiable demand for energy is driving prices up and generating more CO2 than ever.
How Much We Use
Today, the world uses about 12 Terawatts per year for all uses. That is 12,000,000,000,000 Watts. In a separate article I reviewed these sources of use which break down as:
Built Environment = 52% (40% for operations and 12% for materials)
Industry = 24%
Other Transport = 15%
Passenger cars = 9%
Energy from Many Sources
There has been a lot of conversation about renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and others. One would think we are now generating 30% of our overall needs from these sources. Unfortunately, that is not the case. If we break down the sources of energy worldwide we get:
Oil = 35%
Coal = 27%
Natural Gas = 20%
Hydro = 6%
Biomass = 6%
Nuclear = 5%
GeoThermal =Tags: climate change, co2 emissions, coal, fossil fuels, geothermal, insatiable demand, materials industry, natural gas, passenger cars, renewable energy sources, solar wind, sources of energy, terawatts, watts, worldwide climate