Tag Archives: energy

Every year the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Agency) updates their energy flow and consumption diagrams. They are now available for 2017 energy use and the graph here is primary energy consumption by source and sector. For example, petroleum fulfills 37% or our energy use, 72% of petroleum is for transportation, and petroleum represents 92% of our transportation energy uses. Fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, and coal)  generated 78.1 quadrillion BTUs, which is 80% of our energy production, in 2017.  Links to this graph and the energy flow diagrams (total, petroleum, natural gas, coal, & electricity) are found at the bottom of the right side bar on the EIA Monthly Energy Review.

Past diagrams, dating back to 1996, are available at the Energy Flow Archives.  In 2016 fossil fuels generated 78.5 quadrillion BTUs, which was 81% of our energy production.  In 2008 (the first year this diagram appears) it was 83.4 quadrillion BTUs and 84%.

The International Energy Agency’s Energy Access Outlook 2017 has your answer. For example, the chart here answers the question for 2000 and 2015 with an interesting graphic that includes how the change occurred. In 2000, 1684 million people lacked access, 1130 million people gained access, but population grew by 557 million people, leaving 1111 million people without access in 2015. The graph is interactive on the page and breaks these changes down into four regions. There are eight other interesting charts related to electricity as well as access to clean cooking.

The Our World in Data blog post, A sense of units and scale for electrical energy production and consumption has the graph here. It provides a comparison of the scale of different types of electricity production along with comparisons to consumption. For example the Three Gorges Dam is worth 270,000 MWh while the Hoover Dam provides 11,000 MWh.  On the other hand the Alta onshore wind form generates 7,342 MWh.  The post has a nice discussion of units as well as information about the types of electricity generation they highlight in the graphic.

In 2015, the winner is Norway by producing 97.7% of their electricity needs through renewable energy.  The top 3 is completed with New Zealand (80.1%) and Columbia (77.7%). The U.S. produces only 13.6% of their electricity with renewable energy.  You can learn more from the Global Energy Statistics Yearbook 2017. The data on renewable energy production dates back to 1990. You can download graphs like the one here and the data sets (after registering).

Here is a post from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Energy Subsidies,with an interactive graph and data in an Excel spreadsheet. The data is in Millions of USD and you’ll see that the subsidies aren’t insignificant.

The value of global fossil-fuel consumption subsidies in 2015 is estimated at around USD 320 billion, much lower than the estimate for 2014, which was close to USD 500 billion.

Interestingly, the U.S. isn’t in the chart or Excel file and so the global subsidies likely don’t include the U.S. Still, the data is useful.

The energy flow diagram here is from the EIA and represents 2016 petroleum use in millions of barrels per day. For example, the U.S. used 13.88 million barrels of petroleum per day for transportation in 2016. The EIA energy flow diagrams (found on the right sidebar) are excellent for use in the classroom and they have recently been updated with 2016 data. They produce flow diagrams for total energy, petroleum, natural gas, coal, and electricity as well as a sources and sectors chart. They keep an archive of their charts dating back to 1996.

According to Climate Policy Observer EU electricity companies to cut investment in coal plants after 2020. While this is good news there is still a long way to go.

However, coal remains an important energy source for many European member states. According to the most recent EURACOAL data analysis, in 2014 EU indigenous coal and lignite production exceeded indigenous natural gas production by 28 percent and indigenous oil production by 78 percent.

If all existing coal plants continue operating to the end of their full life span, Climate Analytics highlights, the EU will by far exceed the level of emissions from coal compatible with the Paris Agreement’s commitments. For the EU to remain within its carbon budget, 25 percent of currently operating coal-fired power units need to be shut down by 2020, rising to 72 percent by 2025, before a complete shutdown by 2030, the study finds.

U.S. coal use has been on the decline and you can find U.S. coal data in  Calculus Materials.

If you are looking for U.S. energy data then visit the EIA’s Monthly Energy Review.  If you are interested in coal or renewable energy, nuclear or natural gas, or consumption by sector, the data is there. You can choose from pdf files or excel files and each data set has an interactive graph link.  All data sets are historical providing an abundance of time series. On the right sidebar are interesting graphs like the one here that are archived dating back to 1996. Enjoy.