where the energy goes

[nibot]

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.



It's also interesting to see that energy consumption is divided roughly into equal thirds: residential/commerical, industrial, and transportation. This is interesting because the "residential" and "transportation" uses are the sort of things directly influenced by your personal choices. What to eat. Whether to drive. Do you commute? I had this idea that probably lots of our energy was gobbled up by this abstract blob of "industry". But there it is. Nearly one third of our CO2 production comes from transportation, and nearly all of that comes from oil. Want to burn less coal? Use less electricity. Current use of renewable resources? Negligible.

Comments

[shamster.livejournal.com]

Of that transportation figure, I'm curious to know how it breaks down. I was always under the impression that military trucks, airplanes, trains, and ships used for transport of goods consumed more than the standard commuter vehicles overall. i.e. transport of what we consume uses more energy than transporting ourselves.

I could be way off, but a further break-down would be great to see.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

I was wondering how they broke down "useful" versus "wasted" energy use in transportation. You could argue that the only "useful" energy in transportation is that required to overcome potential energy due to changes in elevation!

If you look at the site, though, they have a linked report that goes with the figures that probably clarifies these issues. There's lots of other goodies on the site too.

[shamster.livejournal.com]

thanks for finding that!

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Here's a smorgasbord of energy facts and figures:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/