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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




Related Reading:
Part 1: Is There Enough Alternative Energy to Power the United States?
Part 2: Can the Electric Car Save the American Way of Life?
Part 3: How Much Renewable Energy Does the U.S. Produce?
Part 4: Carbon Sequestration. Of Jet Emissions?
Part 5: Professor David MacKay’s View of Future Britain’s Energy Use
Part 6: Wind Power: Can We Get to 300 GW by 2030?
Part 7: The Solar Pipe Dream?
Part 8: World Energy Consumption Per Capita
Part 9: Dealing With the Intermittency of Wind and Solar Power