GLOBAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION - A PRIMER
We have hopefully all seen this wonderful diagram from LLNL showing the Flow Diagram of the world’s Energy Consumption in a very useful form full of diagnostic power
So how did we get to here ?
And where are we going from here ?
1. The recent history of Global Energy Consumption
Back in the 1800s the primary use of energy was to generate heat by cutting down trees and vegetation and burning them as fuel - referred to here as “Traditional Biomass”
- this was a defining feature of our World 2.0
2. And then with the advent of the Industrial Revolution fossil fuels like Coal, Oil and Gas became increasingly important
- and they started to define many of the characteristics of our World 3.0
3. Wood-burning Biomass has remained as a significant source of Energy even though its proportion has declined
4. Coal reached as high as 50% of our Energy supply and has continued to grow in absolute terms even though its proportion has shrunk to around 25%
5. Oil took over 40% of the Energy market until the Oil Shock of 1973 started changing our attitudes about the efficiency of its consumption
6. And Gas has been steadily growing its share of the market