| Energy Facts 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). [11] 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%. [1] According to the US Energy Information Administration's 2006 estimate, the estimated 15TW total energy consumption of 2004 was divided as follows, with fossil fuels supplying 86% of the world's energy: Fuel type Power in TW[1] Energy/year in EJ Oil 5.6 180 Gas 3.5 110 Coal 3.8 120 Hydroelectric 0.9 30 Nuclear 0.9 30 Geothermal, wind, 0.13 4 solar,wood Total 15 471 Coal Coal fueled the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th century. With the advent of the automobile, airplanes and the spreading use of electricity, oil became the dominant fuel during the twentieth century. The growth of oil as the largest fossil fuel was further enabled by steadily dropping prices from 1920 until 1973. After the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, during which the price of oil increased from 5 to 45 US dollars per barrel, there was a shift away from oil.[12] 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.[5] Over the last forty years, the use of fossil fuels has continued to grow and their share of the energy supply has increased. In the last three years, coal, which is one of the dirtiest sources of energy,[13] has become the fastest growing fossil fuel.[14]. Photovoltaics are 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 power is 3.8 YJ per year. Nuclear power In 2005 nuclear energy accounted 6.3% of world's total primary energy supply.[15] The nuclear power production in 2006 accounted 2,658 TWh, which was 16% of world's total electricity production.[16][17] 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.[16] Among the nations not currently using nuclear power, 25 countries are building them, or are proposing to do so.[18] 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).[19] In addition, while Austria[20], the Philippines[21] and North Korea[22] 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.[23] 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.[3] Hydropower Worldwide hydroelectricity consumption reached 816 GW in 2005, consisting of 750 GW of large plants, and 66 GW of small hydro installations. Large hydro capacity totaling 10.9 GW was added by China, Brazil and India during the year, but there was a much faster growth (8%) in small hydro, with 5 GW added, mostly in China where some 58% of the world's small hydro plants are now located.[3] In the Western world, although Canada is the largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world, the construction of large hydro plants has stagnated due to environmental concerns.[24] 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.[3] World production of bioethanol increased by 8% in 2005 to reach 33 billion litres (8.72 billion US gallons), with most of the increase in the United States, bringing it level to the levels of consumption in Brazil.[3] Biodiesel increased by 85% to 3.9 billion litres (1.03 billion US gallons), making it the fastest growing renewable energy source in 2005. Over 50% is produced in Germany.[3] Wind power According to the Global Wind Energy Council, the installed capacity of wind power increased by 25.6% in from the end of 2005 to end of 2006 to total 74 GW with over half the increase in the United States, Germany, India and Spain.[25] Doubling of capacity took about three and a half 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 will 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.[26][27] In 2005 grid-connected photovoltaic electricity was the fastest growing renewable energy after biodiesel. During the year consumption increased by 55% on 2004 to bring the installed capacity to 3.1 GW. Over half of the increase was in Germany, now the world's largest consumer of photovoltaic electricity (followed by Japan). It was estimated that there was a further 2.3 GW of off-grid electricity produced, bringing the total to 5.4 GW.[3] Portugal has opened the world's most powerful photovoltaic solar power plant. The 11 megawatt solar power plant, comprising 52,000 photovoltaic modules is based in southern Portugal which is one of the sunniest places in Europe. It produces sufficient energy to power 8000 homes (see Renewable energy in Portugal).[28] 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.[3] Geothermal Geothermal energy is used commercially in over 70 countries.[29] By the end of 2005 worldwide use for electricity had reached 9.3 GW, with an additional 28 GW used directly for heating.[3] If heat recovered by ground source heat pumps is included, the non-electric use of geothermal energy is estimated at more than 100 GW.[29] By country Energy consumption broadly tracks with gross national product, although there is a significant difference between the consumption levels of the United States with 11.4 kW per person and Japan and Germany with 6 kW per person. Canada has the highest energy consumption per person, whereas the lowest energy consumption takes place in developing and under-developed economies. In developing countries such as India the per person energy use is closer to 0.5 kW. The most significant growth of energy consumption is currently taking place in China, which has been growing at 5.5% per year over the last 25 years. Its population of 1.3 billion people is currently consuming energy at a rate of 2 kW per person. One metric of efficiency is energy intensity. This is a measure of the amount of energy it takes a country to produce a dollar of gross domestic product. Japan and the UK are among the most efficient in the world by this measure.[citation needed] By sector Industrial users (agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and construction) consume about 37% of the total 15 TW. Personal and commercial transportation consumes 20%; residential heating, lighting, and appliances use 11%; and commercial uses (lighting, heating and cooling of commercial buildings, and provision of water and sewer services) amount to 5% of the total. [30] 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%.[31] 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.[32] Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
GreenerGrassRoots.com
Our first community Benquet
Community Partners is a
farming community located in
the mountains of Benquet,
Philippines. It is 1833 meters
or 6000 feet above sea level
and cold cold cold (watch
video below)
Community Partners is a
farming community located in
the mountains of Benquet,
Philippines. It is 1833 meters
or 6000 feet above sea level
and cold cold cold (watch
video below)
| Unleash Power For The People A charitable organization that has one deliverable but 3 benefits. We deliver a renewable power generator to communities in the world without electricity. (over 2 billion people possible) Our 3 benefits are to help poor people, help the environment, and to educate the world about the need to use renewable energy to permanently solve poverty. |
| What is a terawatt? A terawatt is one trillion watts of energy. |