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 industrial revolution.

Here contemporary energy supply is outlined. It is a vast industry, taking about 10% of all worldwide expenditures and it 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.

Lists of countries are given where most energy is produced and consumed, distinguishing fossil, nuclear and renewable energy, and referring to many conversions and transport between production and consumption. The lists are kept short to make updates feasible. Lastly the outlook on energy use until 2040 and possible changes in energy policy are summarised.

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.

Primary energy assessment follows certain rules to ease measurement and comparison of different kinds of energy.

The table lists the world-wide production and the countries/regions producing most (86%) of that. The Persian Gulf States are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq and Oman, in order of production. The amounts are given in million tonnes of oil equivalent per year (Mtoe/a, 1 Mtoe = 11.63 TWh). The data are of 2013.

	Total Mtoe/a	Fossil	Nuclear	Renewable
WORLD	13600	81%	5%	14%
China	2570	86%	1%	13%
United States	1880	80%	11%	8%
Persian Gulf States	1742	0%	0%	0%
Russia	1316	95%	3%	2%
Africa	1129	65%	0%	33%
European Union	793	47%	29%	26%
India	523	59%	2%	39%
Indonesia	460	84%	0%	16%
Canada	435	83%	6%	11%
Brazil	253	51%	2%	47%
Mexico	217	92%	1%	7%
Venezuela	192	96%	0%	4%
Norway	192	93%	0%	7%

Fossil energy production in the world is 36% coal, 38% petroleum and 26% natural gas.

The top producers in Africa are Nigeria (256), S-Africa (166) and Algeria (138).

In the EU France (136, mainly nuclear), Germany (120), UK (110), Poland (71, mainly coal) and Netherlands (69, mainly natural gas) produce most.

Between production and final consumption

Primary energy is converted in many ways to energy carriers, also known as secondary energy.

• Lignite and coal mainly go to thermal power stations. Coke is derived by destructive distillation of bituminous coal.
• Petroleum goes mainly to oil refineries and is also used to generate electricity and to make coke.
• Natural-gas goes to processing plants to remove contaminants such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, and mixed to adjust the heating value.
• Nuclear reaction heat is used to generate electricity.
• Biomass is converted to biofuel.

Electricity generators are driven by

	Export	Import
Persian Gulf States	1167	21
Russia	620	27
Indonesia	301	56
Canada	263	78
Norway	166	8
European Union	539	1451
Japan	18	455
India	72	327
S-Korea	57	291

• Steam or gas turbines in a thermal plant,
• or water turbines in a hydropower station,
• or wind turbines, stand-alone or in a wind farm.

The invention of the PV cell in 1954 started electricity generation by solar panels, connected to a power inverter. Around 2000 mass production of panels made this economical.

Primary and converted energy is much traded among countries. The table lists countries/regions that export most of their energy, followed by countries that must import much for their economies. The quantities are expressed in Mtoe/a and the data are of 2013.

Big transport goes by tanker ship, tank truck, LNG carrier, rail freight transport, pipeline and by electric power transmission.

32% of primary production is used for conversion and transport, and 6% for non-energy products like lubricants, asphalt and petrochemicals. 62% remains for end-users.

Final consumption

This is the world-wide consumption of energy by end-users. This energy consists of fuel (80%) and electricity (20%). The tables lists amounts, expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent per year (1 Mtoe = 11.63 TWh), and how much of these is renewable energy. Non-energy products are not considered here. The data are of 2013.

Fuel:

• 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.
• District heating.

The amounts are based on lower heating value.

Electricity:

See World electricity consumption for details, but note that the table there includes also internal consumption of power plants, about 10% of the totals.

The first table lists world-wide final consumption and the countries/regions which use 3/4 of that. In developing countries fuel consumption is more renewable. Canada and Brazil generate most electricity with hydropower.

	Fuel Mtoe/a	of which renewable	Electricity Mtoe/a	of which renewable	Inhabitants million
WORLD	6800	17%	1680	21%	7120
China	1390	16%	387	20%	1360
United States	1050	7%	325	13%	316
European Union	801	10%	238	13%	508
Africa	485	62%	51	13%	1110
India	415	41%	77	16%	1250
Russia	300	1%	64	21%	143
Japan	191	2%	82	12%	127
Brazil	170	34%	42	82%	200
Indonesia	135	40%	16	11%	250
Canada	133	9%	42	59%	35
Iran	130	0%	18	5%	77
Mexico	91	9%	21	23%	118
s-Korea	82	4%	42	2%	50

The next table shows countries consuming most (80%) in the European Union, and Norway. The last three countries generate electricity largely renewable.

	Fuel Mtoe/a	of which renewable	Electricity Mtoe/a	of which renewable	Inhabitants million
Germany	158	9%	45	25%	82
France	106	12%	38	16%	66
United Kingdom	96	2%	27	13%	64
Italy	90	10%	25	32%	61
Spain	56	9%	20	31%	47
Poland	51	12%	11	11%	39
Netherland	38	3%	9	14%	17
Belgium	26	8%	7	14%	11
Portugal	11	20%	4	60%	10
Denmark	11	13%	3	48%	6
Norway	9	11%	9	98%	5

Outlook until 2040

In view of contemporary energy policy of countries the IEA expects that the worldwide energy consumption in 2040 will have increased 30%, mainly by strong growth in India and China, while EU and Japan will use less and the US about the same.

Electricity use will increase 60% by

• growing economies in developing countries where now about 1/6 of all people in the world have no electricity, and
• electrification of transport and heating which now uses mainly fossil fuel.

More than half of this 60% increase will be generated using wind and sun. The share of coal for electricity generation will decrease from 40% to 30%.

With this policy the goal, set in the Paris agreement, will not be reached. More measures, including phase-out of subsidy on fossil fuel and increase of investment in renewable energy, can be taken at no net economic cost.

See also

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