World Energy Consumption Per Capita
Americans really do use a lot of energy. I’m not condemning. Our economy and lifestyle are based upon cheap energy. The point of this entire exercise is to determine whether its technologically and economically possible for us to continue to live like this in a carbon free world.
| World Per capita energy consumption | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | kWh/d | Country | kWh/d |
| Canada | 350 | Ireland | 131 |
| United States | 272 | Spain | 130 |
| Australia | 218 | Europe | 117 |
| Sweden | 207 | Italy | 110 |
| Netherlands | 206 | Middle East | 99 |
| Russian | 170 | Poland | 75 |
| South Korea | 152 | Mexico | 51 |
| France | 145 | South America | 42 |
| Japan | 142 | China | 41 |
| Germany | 141 | Africa | 13 |
| United Kingdom | 132 | India | 11 |
In the United States we produce approximately 272 kWh/d of energy per person. That energy is generated from the following types of fuels.
| Generating Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Coal | 61.7 kWh/d |
| Natural Gas | 61.1 kWh/d |
| Petroleum | 109 kWh/d |
| Nuclear | 22.1 kWh/d |
| Renewables | 17.4 kWh/d |
That produced energy is consumed as follows.
| Consumption Type | Amount |
|---|---|
| Car | 57 kWh/d |
| Air Travel | 34 kWh/d |
| Air Temperature | 34 kWh/d |
| Water Temperature | 18 kWh/d |
| Lights | 6 kWh/d |
| Gadgets | 6 kWh/d |
| Food | 17 kWh/d |
| Fertilizer | 4 kWh/d |
| Stuff | 69 kWh/d |
| Transporting Stuff | 17 kWh/d |
The table below provides a more detailed view of how much of the energy we use on a daily basis is consumed by various household items and industrial processes.
| Cooking | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| kettle | 1 kWh/d | microwave | 0.5 kWh/d |
| electric cooker | 1 kWh/d | electric oven | 2 kWh/d |
| refrigerator | 0.5 kWh/d | freezer | 2.3 kWh/d |
| Cleaning | |||
| tumble dryer | 0.8 kWh/d | airing-cupboard | 0.25 kWh/d |
| washing machine | 0.8 kWh/d | dishwasher | 1.6 kWh/d |
| Stuff | |||
| Aluminum | 3 kWh/d | Packaging | 4 kWh/d |
| Paper | 2 kWh/d | House-building | 1 kWh/d |
| Car-making | 14 kWh/d | Road-building | 2 kWh/d |
| Road freight | 7 kWh/d | Plastic | 8 kWh/d |