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.

Production by country

	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 prepare for end-use.

• 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 natural-gas processing plants to remove contaminants such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.
• Uranium is enriched for nuclear reactors, see Isotope separation.
• 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 tabel 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 (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.