World energy resources and consumption Totally Explained

Everything about World Energy Resources And Consumption totally explained

In order to directly compare world energy resources and consumption of energy, this article uses SI units and prefixes and measures energy rate (or power) in watts (W) and amounts of energy in joules (J). One watt is one joule per second.
   In 2005, total worldwide energy consumption was 500 EJ (= 5 x 10²⁰ J) with 86.5% derived from the combustion of fossil fuels, although there's at least 10% uncertainty in that figure. This is equivalent to 15 TW (= 1.5 x 10¹³ W) of power. Not all of the world's economies track their energy consumption with the same rigor, and the exact energy content of a barrel of oil or a ton of coal will vary with quality.
   Most of the world energy resources are from the sun's rays hitting earth - some of that energy has been preserved as fossil energy, some is directly or indirectly usable for example via wind, hydro or wave power. The term solar constant is the amount of incoming solar electromagnetic radiation per unit area, measured on the outer surface of Earth's atmosphere, in a plane perpendicular to the rays. The solar constant includes all types of solar radiation, not just the visible light. It is measured by satellite to be roughly 1366 watts per square meter, though it fluctuates by about 6.9% during a year - from 1412 W/m2 in early January to 1321 W/m2 in early July, due to the earth's varying distance from the sun, and by a few parts per thousand from day to day. For the whole Earth, with a cross section of 127,400,000 km², the power is 1.740×10¹⁷ W, plus or minus 3.5%.
   The estimates of remaining worldwide energy resources vary, with the remaining fossil fuels totaling an estimated 0.4 YJ (1 YJ = 10²⁴J) and the available nuclear fuel such as uranium exceeding 2.5 YJ. Fossil fuels range from 0.6-3 YJ if estimates of reserves of methane clathrates are accurate and become technically extractable. Mostly thanks to the Sun, the world also has a renewable usable energy flux that exceeds 120 PW (8,000 times 2004 total usage), or 3.8 YJ/yr, dwarfing all non-renewable resources.

Consumption

Since the advent of the industrial revolution, the worldwide energy consumption has been growing steadily. In 1890 the consumption of fossil fuels roughly equaled the amount of biomass fuel burned by households and industry. In 1900, global energy consumption equaled 0.7 TW (0.7×10¹² watts).

Fossil fuels

The twentieth century saw a rapid twentyfold increase in the use of fossil fuels. Between 1980 and 2004, the worldwide annual growth rate was 2%. Coal and nuclear became the fuels of choice for electricity generation and conservation measures increased energy efficiency. In the US the average car more than doubled the number of miles per gallon. Japan, who bore the brunt of the oil shocks, made spectacular improvements and now has the highest energy efficiency in the world. has become the fastest growing fossil fuel.. Photovoltaics, however, is rapidly becoming available to replace fossil fuels as the dominant energy source. Note the earlier comparison of availability: The total resources of all fossil fuels amount to about 0.4 YJ total, while the availability of solar energy is 3.8 YJ per year.

Nuclear power

In 2005 nuclear energy accounted 6.3% of world's total primary energy supply. The nuclear power production in 2006 accounted 2,658 TWh, which was 16% of world's total electricity production. In November 2007, there were 439 operational nuclear reactors worldwide, with total capacity of 372,002 MWe. A further 33 reactors were under construction, 94 reactors were planned and 222 reactors were proposed. Among the nations not currently using nuclear power, 25 countries are building them, or are proposing to do so. A few nations have announced plans to phase out nuclear power altogether, but to date only Italy has done so (though Italy continues to import electricity from nations with active nuclear power plants). In addition, while Austria, the Philippines and North Korea have built nuclear power stations, these nations abandoned them before they could be fueled and operated.

Renewable energy

In 2004, renewable energy supplied around 7% of the world's energy consumption. The renewables sector has been growing significantly since the last years of the 20th century, and in 2005 the total new investment was estimated to have been 38 billion US dollars. Germany and China lead with investments of about 7 billion US dollars each, followed by the United States, Spain, Japan, and India. This resulted in an additional 35 GW of capacity during the year. The trend in both Canada and the United States has been to micro hydro because it has negligible environmental impacts and opens up many more locations for power generation. In British Columbia alone the estimates are that micro hydro will be able to more than double electricity production in the province.

Biomass and biofuels

Until the end of the nineteenth century biomass was the predominant fuel, today it has only a small share of the overall energy supply. Electricity produced from biomass sources was estimated at 44 GW for 2005. Biomass electricity generation increased by over 100% in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. A further 220 GW was used for heating (in 2004), bringing the total energy consumed from biomass to around 264 GW. The use of biomass fires for cooking is excluded. Doubling of capacity took about three years. The total installed capacity is approximately three times that of the actual average power produced as the nominal capacity represents peak output; actual capacity is generally from 25-40% of the nominal capacity.

Solar power

Solar energy used during 2005 was approximately 93.4 GW; however, the available resources are 3.8 YJ/yr (120,000 TW). Only a small fraction of available resources are sufficient to entirely replace fossil fuels and nuclear power as an energy source. Assuming that our current rate of usage remains constant, we'll run out of conventional oil in 35 years, coal in 200 yrs. In practice neither will actually run out, as natural constraints will force production to decline as the remaining reserves dwindle.
   In 2007 grid-connected photovoltaic electricity was the fastest growing energy source, with installations of all photovoltaics increasing by 83% in 2007 to bring the total installed capacity to 8.7 GW. Nearly half of the increase was in Germany, now the world's largest consumer of photovoltaic electricity (followed by Japan). Solar cell production increased by 50% in 2007, to 3,800 megawatts, and has been doubling every two years.
   The world's most powerful photovoltaic solar power plant is the 20 megawatt Beneixama photovoltaic power plant in Spain, although a 116 megawatt plant is under construction in southern Portugal, one of the sunniest places in Europe. The largest photovoltaic installation in North America is the 18 megawatt Nellis Solar Power Plant.
   Since 1991 the largest solar power plant has been the 354 megawatt Solar Energy Generating Systems, in California, using parabolic trough collectors.
   The consumption of solar hot water and solar space heating was estimated at 88 GWt (gigawatts of thermal power) in 2004. The heating of water for unglazed swimming pools is excluded. By the end of 2005 worldwide use for electricity had reached 9.3 GW, with an additional 28 GW used directly for heating.
   The other 27% of the world's energy is lost in energy transmission and generation. In 2005, global electricity consumption equaled 2 TW. The energy used to generate 2 TW of electricity is approximately 5 TW, as the efficiency of a typical existing power plant is around 38%. The new generation of gas-fired plants reaches a substantially higher efficiency of 55%. Coal is the most popular fuel for the world's electricity plants.

Resources

Fossil fuel

Remaining reserves of conventional fossil fuels are estimated as:

Fuel	Energy reserves in ZJ
Coal	290.0
Oil	18.4
Gas	15.7

Significant uncertainty exists for these numbers. The estimation of the remaining fossil fuels on the planet depends on a detailed understanding of the Earth crust. This understanding is still less than perfect. While modern drilling technology makes it possible to drill wells in up to 3 km of water to verify the exact composition of the geology, one half of the ocean is deeper than 3 km, leaving about a third of the planet beyond the reach of detailed analysis. At the same time, long before fossil fuels run out, the effect of continuing to use them at current rates would cause havoc to the climate through global warming. These figures may be too optimistic. Energy Watch Group reports show that we already can't supply the demand for oil and that uranium resources will be exhausted within 70 years.

Coal

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel. According to the International Energy Agency the proven reserves of coal are around 909 billion tonnes, which could sustain at the current production rate for 155 years. This was the fuel that launched the industrial revolution and has continued to grow in use; China, which already has many of the world's most polluted cities, was in 2007 building about two coal fired power plants every week. Coal is the fastest growing fossil fuel and its large reserves would make it a popular candidate to meet the energy demand of the global community, short of global warming concerns and other pollutants. With the Fischer-Tropsch process it's possible to make liquid fuels such as diesel and jet fuel from coal. The Stop Coal campaign calls for a moratorium on the construction of any new coal plants and on the phase out of all existing plants, citing concern for global warming. In the United States, 49% of electricity generation comes from burning coal.

Oil

It is estimated that there may be 57 ZJ of oil reserves on Earth (although estimates vary from a low of 8 ZJ, A 2005 French Economics, Industry and Finance Ministry report suggested a worst-case scenario that could occur as early as 2013. There are also theories that peak of the global oil production may occur in as little as 2-3 years. The ASPO predicts peak year to be in 2010. Some other theories present the view that it has already taken place in 2005. World oil production decreased from 84.63 mbd in 2005 to 84.60 mbd in 2006 but increased in 2007 to 84.66 mbd, and is projected to increase to 87.70 mbd in 2009.

Sustainability

Political considerations over the security of supplies, environmental concerns related to global warming and sustainability will move the world's energy consumption away from fossil fuels. The concept of peak oil shows that we've used about half of the available petroleum resources, and predicts a decrease of production.
A government led move away from fossil fuels would most likely create economic pressure through carbon emissions trading and green taxation. Some countries are taking action as a result of the Kyoto Protocol, and further steps in this direction are proposed. For example, the European Commission has proposed that the energy policy of the European Union should set a binding target of increasing the level of renewable energy in the EU's overall mix from less than 7% today to 20% by 2020.
The Easter Island Effect is cited as an example of a culture that was unable to develop sustainability and depleted nearly 100% of its natural resources.

Nuclear power

Nuclear fission

The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates the remaining uranium resources to be equal to 2500 ZJ. This assumes the use of Breeder reactors which are able to create more fissile material than they consume. IPCC estimated currently proved economically recoverable uranium deposits for once-through fuel cycles reactors to be only 2 ZJ. The ultimately recoverable uranium is estimated to be 17 ZJ for once-through reactors and 1000 ZJ with reprocessing and fast breeder reactors.
Resources and technology don't constrain the capacity of nuclear power to contribute to meeting the energy demand for the 21st century. However, political and environmental concerns about nuclear safety and radioactive waste started to limit the growth of this energy supply at the end of last century, particularly due to a number of nuclear accidents. Concerns about nuclear proliferation (especially with Plutonium produced by breeder reactors) mean that the development of nuclear power by countries such as Iran and Syria is being actively discouraged by the international community.

Nuclear fusion

Fusion power is the process driving our sun and other stars. It generates large quantities of heat by fusing the nuclei of hydrogen isotopes. The heat can theoretically be harnessed to generate electricity. The temperatures and pressures needed to sustain fusion make it a very difficult process to control and doing so is an unsolved technical challenge. The tantalizing potential of fusion is its theoretical ability to supply vast quantities of energy, with relatively little pollution. Both the United States and the European Union are supporting a moderate level of research (such as investing in the ITER facility), along with other countries. Fusion has remained 50 years away for the last 60 years, and is now seen as being 50 to 250 years away from commercial availability.

Renewable resources

Renewable resources are available each year, unlike non-renewable resources which are eventually depleted. A simple comparison is a coal mine and a forest. While the forest could be depleted, if it's managed properly it represents a continuous supply of energy, vs the coal mine which once it has been exhausted is gone. Most of earth's available energy resources are renewable resources. Renewable resources account for more than 93 percent of total U.S. energy reserves. Annual renewable resources were multiplied times thirty years for comparison with non-renewable resources. In other words, if all non-renewable resources were uniformly exhausted in 30 years, they'd only account for 7 percent of available resources each year, if all available renewable resources were developed.

Solar energy

Renewable energy sources are even larger than the traditional fossil fuels and in theory can easily supply the world's energy needs. 89 PW of solar power fall on the planet's surface. While it isn't possible to capture all, or even most, of this energy, capturing less than 0.02% would be enough to meet the current energy needs. Barriers to further solar generation include the high price of silicon used to make solar cells, reliance on weather patterns to generate electricity and a lack of space for solar cells in areas of high demand, such as cities. Also, solar generation doesn't produce electricity at night, which is a particular problem in high northern and southern latitude countries; energy demand is highest in winter, while availability of solar energy is lowest. Globally, solar generation is the fastest growing source of energy, seeing an annual average growth of 35% over the past few years. Japan, Europe, China, U.S. and India are the major growing investors in solar energy. Advances in technology and economies of scale, along with demand for solutions to global warming, have led photovoltaics to become the most likely candidate to replace nuclear and fossil fuels.

Wind power

The available wind energy estimates range from 300 TW to 870 TW. Using the lower estimate, just 5% of the available wind energy would supply the current worldwide energy needs. Most of this wind energy is available over the open ocean. The oceans cover 71% of the planet and wind tends to blow stronger over open water because there are fewer obstructions.

Wave and tidal power

At the end of 2005, 0.3 GW of electricity was produced by tidal power. As a result, the rotational speed of the Earth decreases, and the distance of the Moon to the Earth increases, on geological time scales. In several billion years, the Earth will rotate at the same speed as the Moon is revolving around it. So, several TW of tidal energy can be produced without having a significant effect on celestial mechanics.
Another physical limitation is the energy available in the tidal fluctuations of the oceans, which is about 0.6 EJ (exa joule). Note this is only a tiny fraction of the total rotational energy of the Earth. Without forcing, this energy would be dissipated (at a dissipation rate of 3.7 TW) in about four semi-diurnal tide periods. So, dissipation plays a significant role in the tidal dynamics of the oceans. Therefore, this limits the available tidal energy to around 0.8 TW (20% of the dissipation rate) in order not to disturb the tidal dynamics too much.
Waves are derived from wind, which is in turn derived from solar energy, and at each conversion there's a drop of about two orders of magnitude in available energy. The energy fluxes of waves that wash against our shores add up to 3 TW.

Geothermal

Estimates of exploitable worldwide geothermal energy resources vary considerably. According to a 1999 study, it was thought that this might amount to between 65 and 138 GW of electrical generation capacity 'using enhanced technology'.
A 2006 report by MIT that took into account the use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) concluded that it would be affordable to generate 100 GWe (gigawatts of electricity) or more by 2050, just in the United States, for a maximum investment of 1 billion US dollars in research and development over 15 years.

Hydropower

Hydroelectric power now supplies about 715,000 MWe or 19% of world electricity (16% in 2003). Large dams are still being designed. Nevertheless, hydroelectric power is probably not a major option for the future of energy production in the developed nations because most major sites within these nations are either already being exploited or are unavailable for other reasons, such as environmental considerations.

Alternative energy paths

Denmark and Germany have started to make investments in solar energy, despite their unfavorable geographic locations. Germany is now the largest consumer of photovoltaic cells in the world. Denmark and Germany have installed 3 GW and 17 GW of wind power respectively. In 2005, wind generated 18.5% of all the electricity in Denmark. Brazil invests in ethanol production from sugar cane which is now a significant part of the transportation fuel in that country. Starting in 1965, France made large investments in nuclear power and to this date three quarters of its electricity comes from nuclear reactors. Switzerland is planning to cut its energy consumption by more than half to become a 2000-watt society by 2050 and the United Kingdom is working towards a zero energy building standard for all new housing by 2016. In 2005, the Swedish government announced the oil phase-out in Sweden with the intention to become the first country to break its dependence on fossil fuel by 2020.
In the twenty first century, some of these different energy paths might become more mainstream and start replacing the ubiquitous fossil fuels. It should be noted that between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. The energy for the Green Revolution was provided by fossil fuels in the form of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil), and hydrocarbon fueled irrigation. The peaking of world hydrocarbon production (Peak oil) may test Malthus critics.

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