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

These are interesting

[nibot.livejournal.com]

* Energy consumption, state-by-state (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec1_14.pdf)

States with small populations have high per capita energy use. Not too surprising. But why does texas use so much?

* Federal energy use by Agency (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec1_24.pdf)

Unsurprisingly, the department of defense uses the vast majority of energy consumed by government agencies.

Re: These are interesting

[likeabikemike.livejournal.com]

Why would states with small populations have high per capita use?

I think per capita use is a function mostly of typical driving distances, fuel prices, and occupations. Wealth would figure too, but is probably not that different from other states. Prices would also be a function of taxation, etc., and TX is pretty oil friendly.