(File this under “stupid human tricks” – promoted by eli_beckerman)
A larger version of this chart, where you can read the numbers more easily is at
https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/energy/energy_archive/energy_flow_2009/LLNL_US_Energy_Flow_2009.png
Estimated US energy use in 2009 was 94.6 quadrillion btu’s. 54.64 quads were “rejected energy,” wasted energy. 39.97 quads actually provided energy services, did work. We lost about 57.75% of the energy we produced to get the use of 42.25% of what we, mostly, burned. At least, those are the percentages I get with my calculator.
Energy consumption from 2008 to 2009 declined slightly, as did our efficiency:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
The estimated U.S. energy use in 2008 equaled 99.2 quadrillion BTUs (“quads”), down from 101.5 quadrillion BTUs in 2007…. Of the 99.2 quads consumed, only 42.15 ended up as energy services.
That’s a gross efficiency of 42.49%. We waste more energy than we use.
Electricity production operates at 31.63% and transportation at 24.98% efficiency. Tell me again why energy efficiency isn’t the top priority in our energy debate.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
According to [Thomas] Casten [of Recycled Energy], energy waste is pervasive and endemic throughout our electrical system but invisible in our policy discussions. The average US power plant operates at 33% efficiency and throws away 66% of the energy it produces through waste heat, transmission and distribution losses, and other inefficiencies. There are even greater losses before you get to the end use of that electricity. For instance, an incandescent light has an end use efficiency of about 3% [somebody should tell Rand Paul]. Furthermore, the level of electricity efficiency stagnated in 1960. For the last 50 years, there has been no growth in average efficiency in our power plants and the conversion of energy to useful work (exergy, exergy, exergy) actually began declining in 2000.
There is some good news in this chart in that the residential, commercial, and industrial uses of energy operate at about 80%.
Plus, if we look back to Amory Lovins’ 1976 Foreign Affairs article “The Road Not Taken,” we will see that the projections then were for the US to use about twice the energy that we do now. We have grown our economy enormously (believe it or not) since 1976 but we haven’t been as wasteful of energy as we thought we would be.
These are just gross numbers, a first cut at basic analysis, but what they reveal may be useful.
Loading ...
#
Don’t you love the euphemism? The govt cannot even be honest enough to admit our system wastes MOST of the the fuel we use. I suspect that’s b/c it keeps some people very wealthy.
Of that chart, the biggest danger is the bottom, dark green arrow: As oil gets prohibitively expensive and in short supply, the bulk of our transport system comes to a halt. In MA, we have to obtain a LOT of our food and other necessities from places 100s of miles away, and our rail network is a mess. That leaves most places with only a few days’ food, then people start starving and stealing if they haven’t learned to grow it themselves. (That’s why it MUST be a major part of our “green economy” effort.)