where the energy goes

One hundred and three exajoules. That's how much energy was produced in the United States in 2002. In the process, 5,682,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere. This I learned from a printout taped to a door I passed by while moving a big laser from one building to another today at Caltech. I found the figures from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Energy and Environmental Directive interesting, and maybe you will too. Sixty one percent of the energy produced in the country is wasted. I don't think that even includes thermodynamic inefficiencies in generation. Sixty eight percent of electrical power is lost in transmission, between the generating plant and the user.



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