Archive:000/Energy demand

This page is an attempt to estimate how much energy it takes to sustain a reasonable quality of life in a developed country.

Tables

Energy units: W (watts per capita, averaged over time. This is not the same as peak watts). (example)Suppose an electric car charger operates at 4800 watts, but the car is only charging for 2 hours per day on average. So the wattage averaged over time is 400 watts. Also note: If a family of 2 people owns 1 of these cars, then that's 200 watts per capita.

• Non-electric energy usage (fuel) is still measured in watts, this same way, for the sake of comparison.

oecd.energy.tfc

3784.37 Mtoe/year

OECD countries - energy usage - total final consumption

Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report)
- Page 49: OECD energy balance, 2018

oecd.population

1372683615

Number of people living in OECD countries

Population, total - World Bank Data
data.worldbank.org › indicator › SP.POP.TOTL

Using data from 2020

OECD countries are: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

oecd.residential.heating

10% oecd.energy.tfc

subset of oecd.residential

Page 44 of KWES2020 - inferring from statistic on IEA countries, which mostly overlap with OECD countries

oecd.residential

20% oecd.energy.tfc

oecd.commercial.services

14% oecd.energy.tfc

oecd.industrial.manufacturing

23% oecd.energy.tfc

not entirely useful on its own, because people in OECD countries consume a lot of goods manufactured outside of OECD countries

oecd.industrial.manufacturing.chemicals

5% oecd.energy.tfc

subset of oecd.industrial.manufacturing

oecd.industrial.mining

4% oecd.energy.tfc

oecd.industrial.other

3% oecd.energy.tfc

Includes agriculture & construction. Excludes manufacturing & mining.

oecd.transport

36% oecd.energy.tfc

oecd.transport.passenger_cars

21% oecd.energy.tfc

subset of oecd.transport

world.energy.tfc

9937.70 Mtoe/year

Total final consumption (TFC)

Page 47 of KWES2020

world.industrial

2839.31 Mtoe/year

world.population

7.9 billion

Using data from 2021

usa.population

336997624

Using data from 2021

usa.residential.cooling

204 billion kilowatt hours / year

usa.residential.other

520 billion kilowatt hours / year

	Status quoibased on OECD countries, most of which are developed	Status quo, electrifiediall vehicles electric instead of fossil fuels ~ Estimated based on the energy footprint of lithium-ion batteries.	Minimal consumptioniInvolves major personal & social changes: ~ Public transit and walkability ~ Frugalism ~ Abolishing planned obsolescence and code bloat
Residential - heating i~ heating indoor air (not water) ~ varies with the weather and local climate ~ energy may be fuel or electricity	366 W oecd.residential.heating / oecd.populationW(calculation loading)	← same
Residential - cooling i~ cooling indoor air (not food refrigeration) ~ varies with the weather and local climate	69 W usa.residential.cooling / usa.populationW(calculation loading)	← same
Residential - other iEntirely electricity - anything used in the home (except for heating/cooling and charging electric vehicles (which would go in "transport")). A lot of websites that teach you how to "save energy" are centered on this. But as you can see, it's actually quite a small part of energy demand!	176 W usa.residential.other / usa.populationW(calculation loading)	← same	← same
Commercial iThis is not split into heating/cooling/misc (unlike for residential) due to lack of more detailed data.	512 W oecd.commercial.services / oecd.populationW(calculation loading)	← same
Industrial iAlmost all of this is manufacturing. Other industrial processes include agriculture & mining (surprisingly minor in terms of energy use).	1045 WEstimated in a more complex way, because people in OECD countries consume a lot of goods that were manufactured outside of OECD countries. world.industrial / world.energy.tfc * oecd.energy.tfc / oecd.populationW(calculation loading)	(to be calculated)
Transport iIncludes passenger vehicles, freight trucks, and to a lesser extent: trains, planes and ships	1317 W oecd.transport / oecd.populationW(calculation loading)	(to be calculated)
Total	3485 W

All datapoints are cited from Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report) unless otherwise specified.

Note on reducing environmental impacts

• When it comes to climate change: Energy usage is the main culprit.
  • Home electricity is just a small part of this. The best thing people can do is drive less and buy less.
    • Note: This is targeted at the average person who lives in a developed country. If you are poor, you probably don't need to consume less. 
• When it comes to habitat loss: Land usage is the main culprit.
  • The best thing people can do is eat more plant-based and waste less food.

Purpose

This page is currently incomplete. By finishing it, we can gain insights like:

• How much energy & emissions can be saved by various societal changes:
  • Buying less stuff / ending planned obsolescence
  • Driving less (walkability or using public transit)
  • Wasting less food
  • Eating more plant-based
  • Making vehicles electric
• If solar was the world's main energy source:
  • How many solar panels would there need to be near homes vs near industries?
  • How much of the electricity needs to be available 24/7 (requiring energy storage)?

See also

• Energy demand scenarios (an older analysis)