3/29/2012

World energy consumption - some numbers (and dollars)

The size of the world economy is about $60 trillion.  World oil production is about 90 million barrels per day.  At $100 per barrel, the world spends $3.3 trillion (or 5% of its output) on crude.  What about electricity?  The world electricity production is about 20,000 TWh.  At $0.05 kWh (wholesale price), the world spends about $1 trillion on electricity (wholesale).

National Geographic has a nice map of world electricity consumption.  They project electricity consumption to rise from 20k TWh to 35k TWh by 2035 (that corresponds to about 2.5% annual growth).  Can we achieve this in a sustainable fashion?

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