World Energy Balance 2007

Current energy systems are based on coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear fission, depending on the circumstances in a given country and its access to today’s “cheapest”, not necessarily on the most viable, primary energy resources. 88 percent (!) of our energy supply in 2007 was from fossil or nuclear origin. The effects on our climate and the environment by emissions and the huge losses within the production / distribution cycle, however, are neither discussed nor questioned. Moreover there is little renewable energy used, most of it is combustibles and wastes, which are simply burned in furnaces. An exception, of course, is hydro power. At the current annual demand of fossil fuels, the proved reserves will be exhausted within the next three to five decades. But our generation takes the system for granted, although it is only one and a half centuries old. Electricity plants, for example, are not only by far the worst energy converters worldwide but also by far the biggest producers of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other environmental unfriendly surpluses. In 2007 the losses in all 50,000+ electricity plants worldwide amount officially to 2,282 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) while the total final energy consumption summed up to 8,286 Mtoe. This figure on its own is quite remarkable, but it gets scarier indeed if you compare it with the final consumption, let us say, of ALL industry activities worldwide. The losses occurring in the electricity plants are nearly equal to the energy consumed in the entire industry sector (2,275 Mtoe). That means, if you and I would have the power to shut down the entire industry sector worldwide for a given amount of time, we would save less energy than what is lost by the operation of those power plants.

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