World energy supply

World energy supply consists of worldwide production and preparation of fuel (combustible and nuclear), generation of electricity, and energy transport.

Mankind has always used fuel to make fire. Coal and oil extraction are very old. People have built thousands of years wind- and water mills and sailing-boats. Roughly 200 year ago large scale mining of lignite and coal provided much more fuel, enabling industrialization.

Energy supply is crucial for the economy and for quality of life:

• for the economy, the cost of electricity and fuel is important for the competitiveness of producers and for comfort and welfare of consumers.
• for quality of life, the impact of energy production on the environment is important (air and water quality, waste management, climate disruption).

These interests are often in conflict. The industry eg. benefits from cheap electricity from coal plants but these are not climate friendly. Energy policy weighs these interests, and the importance of good relations with countries with which fuel is traded.

Here contemporary energy supply is outlined.

Energy production

World primary energy production

██ World (1015 Btu) ██  China ██  Russia ██  Africa ██  United States ██  Europe ██  Central and South America Note the different y-axis for world (left) en regional (right) production

This is the world-wide production of primary energy from fossil, nuclear and renewable sources. Primary means: extracted or captured directly from natural sources. Note the strong production increase of China.

Energy sources are usually classified as

• fossil, using coal, lignite, petroleum and natural gas,
• nuclear, using uranium,
• renewable, using hydro power, biomass, wind and solar energy, among others.

The table lists the top 16 countries producing 72% of the total of all more than 190 countries. These 16 with the 28 countries of the EU produce 78%. The amounts are given in million tonnes of oil equivalent per year (Mtoe/a, 1 Mtoe = 11.63 TWh). The data are of 2012.

Primary energy assesment.

• Fossil: based on net calorific value.
• Nuclear: heat produced by nuclear reactions, 3 times the electric energy, based on 33% efficiency of nuclear plants.
• Renewable: biomass based on net calorific value. Electric energy produced by hydro power, wind turbines and solar panels. Geothermal heat used in power plants is set at 10 times the electric energy, assuming 10% efficiency.

Production by country

	Total Mtoe/a	Fossil	Nuclear	Renewable
WORLD	13460	82%	5%	13%
China	2525	86%	1%	13%
United States	1806	80%	12%	8%
Russia	1332	95%	3%	2%
European Union	799	47%	29%	24%
Saudi Arabia	625	100%	0	0
India	545	62%	2%	36%
Indonesia	440	83%	0	17%
Canada	420	83%	6%	11%
Iran	303	99%	0	1%
Nigeria	272	60%	0	40%
Brazil	252	64%	34%	2%
Qatar	220	100%	0	0
Mexico	219	91%	1%	8%
Norway	200	93%	0	7%
Venezuela	200	96%	0	4%
Arab Emirates	194	100%	0	0
Kuwait	173	100%	0	0

52% of world energy production is petroleum and natural gas.Petroleum

Between production and final consumption

	Import	Export
European Union	1451	539
United States	582	274
China	552	48
Japan	455	18
India	327	72
South Korea	291	57
Middle-East	117	1176
Canada	78	263
Indonesia	56	301
Russia	27	620
Norway	8	166

Primary energy is converted in many ways to prepare for end-use.

• Lignite and coal mainly go to power plants, see World electricity consumption section Generation. Coke is derived by destructive distillation of bituminous coal.
• Petroleum goes to oil refineries.
• Natural-gas goes to natural-gas processing plants to remove contaminants such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.
• Uranium has to be enriched for nuclear reactors.
• Biomass is converted to biofuel.

Primary and converted energy is also traded among countries. The Persian Gulf states export most of their oil and gas, while the EU import much of these fuels. Big transport goes by tanker, truck, train and by gas pipes and electricity network. The table lists the main import and export of countries and regions in Mtoe/a.

Final consumption is about 60% of primary production. About 30% was used for conversion and transport before it reaches the end-user, and 10% for non-energy products like lubricants, asphalt and petrochemicals.

Final consumption

This is the world-wide consumption of energy by end-users. This energy consists of fuel (76%), electricity (20%) and heat obtained from heat networks (4%). The table lists fuel and electricity amounts and how much of these is renewable energy. A short list of heat is shown separately. Non-energy products are not considered here.

Fuel

Fuel includes

• Fossil fuel: natural gas, fuel derived from petroleum (LPG, gasoline, kerosene, gas/diesel, fuel oil), from coal (anthracite, bituminous coal, coke, lignite, blast furnace gas)
• Renewable fuel: biofuel and fuel derived from waste, so far as it is traded.

Electricity

Main article: World electricity consumption.

Final consumption by country

The table lists the top 40 consuming countries, which use about 90% of the consumption of all more than 190 countries. The amounts for fuel are given in million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) based on net calorific value. For electricity 1 Mtoe = 11.63 TWh. The data are of 2012.

	Fuel		Electricity		Inhabitants
	Mtoe/a	renewable	Mtoe/a	renewable	million
WOLRD	6260	18%	1630	21%	7040
North-America
United States	1000	7%	321	13%	314
Canada	138	7%	43.2	59%	34.9
Mexico	89.6	8%	19.8	23%	117
South-America
Brazil	167	34%	40.6	82%	199
Argentina	44.2	5%	10.3	41%	41.1
Venezuela	42.8	2%	7.6	65%	30.0
Europe and Russia
Germany	144	10%	45.2	25%	81.9
France	103	12%	37.3	16%	65.4
United Kingdom	92.1	5%	27.3	13%	63.7
Italy	85.8	7%	25.5	32%	60.9
Spain	57.9	11%	20.7	31%	46.2
Ukraine	43.3	2%	11.9	8%	45.6
Poland	45.4	13%	10.5	10%	38.5
Netherlands	35.3	3%	9.2	14%	16.8
Belgium	26.7	1%	7.0	14%	11.1
Sweden	15.7	40%	10.9	60%	9.5
Austria	18.2	23%	5.4	77%	8.4
Russia	206	1%	63.7	21%	144
Mid-East
Iran	129	0	17.1	5%	76.4
Turkey	62.4	9%	16.6	27%	74.9
Saudi Arabia	59.2	0	19.8	0	28.3
Arab Emirates	41.8	0	7.5	0	9.2
Southern Asia
China	1140	19%	355	20%	1360
India	401	43%	74.7	16%	1240
Japan	191	1%	79.4	12%	128
Indonesia	134	40%	15.1	11%	247
South Korea	76.6	4%	41.4	2%	50.0
Thailand	59.0	26%	13.9	9%	67.7
Pakistan	62.3	47%	6.6	29%	179
Vietnam	41.8	34%	9.4	40%	88.8
Taiwan	26.9	1%	19.1	5%	23.4
Uzbekistan	27.6	0	3.7	26%	29.8
Malaysia	28.4	1%	10.4	16%	29.2
Kazakhstan	28.3	8.5	6.0	12%	16.8
Australia and Africa
Australia	56.6	8%	18.0	9%	23.1
Nigeria	113	88%	2.2	23%	169
South Africa	49.4	22%	17.0	2%	52.3
Egypt	36.8	4%	12.1	12%	80.7
Algeria	24.7	0	3.5	1%	38.5

Heat

	Heat (Mtoe/a)
WORLD	287
Russia	124
China	71
Germany	10
Poland	6
United States	6
Sweden	5
South Korea	5

Heat, not generated with fuel or electricity by end-users but delivered to them as hot water, is treated separately in energy statistics. But these statistics are incomplete. Only China and Russia report large amounts. India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico are listed as zero, which is unlikely.

See also

"Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power" in Mark Jacobson.