Worldwide energy consumption

Of course, today, more than ever before, humanity's needs for energy are huge and constantly increasing. Worldwide consumption of primary energy is growing all the time. We speak of primary energy when that energy has to be transformed before final consumption by users, principally into electricity or into mechanical work in engines. Consumption soared by 49% in the 25 years 1980-2005. The increase, slowed for a time by the economic difficulties of the 1990's, leapt forward again in the last 8 years of that period: + 21% between 1980 and 1989, + 7% between 1989 and 1997, +14% between 1997 and 2005.

Energy comes largely from raw materials extracted from the ground (oil, gas, coal, uranium). Companies operating in these major sectors must meet an increasing world demand for energy; they continually have to strike a balance between supply and demand, neither of which is uniformly spread over the planet. There are the major producers of primary energy materials who supply the world and the large consumers whose own energy production does not satisfy their needs. Companies in the energy sector much therefore also provide for the transfer of energy raw materials from producers to consumers.

Moreover, once they have been extracted from the substratum, those energy raw materials are not reconstituted and replaced. They are non-renewable energies sources. A problem therefore exists concerning reserves, a problem that can be summarised in a single question: how long will the energy resources, which mankind has been using for the last 150 years, remain available to the world?

This Table shows worldwide consumption of energy, excluding wood for burning (estimated at about 10% of total energy consumption).
It can be seen that, over the 25 years, the share of oil (more than 1/3 of world consumption in 2005) has decreased, in favour of gas (a quarter of total consumption) and of nuclear energy (hardly 2 % of world consumption).
Hydrocarbons represent almost 2/3 and coal 1/3 of world energy consumption. Nuclear energy and renewable energy excluding hydroelectricity do not even account for 5% of the total.
The share of hydroelectricity remains stable. That of other renewable energy sources is increasing, but although production of electricity from "new energy sources" has grown by a factor of almost 10 in a period of 20 years, its share of total primary energy consumed remains very low (0.27 % in 2005).
In 2005, renewable energy options (excluding wood for burning) accounted for 2.4% of world energy consumption (1.9% in 1980). Still very little !