I've always liked a good diagram to help me understand something complex, and, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. That's particularly true of the diagrams of U.S. and Canadian energy consumption I found on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website.
The first diagram shows estimated U.S. energy use in 2009.
The second diagram shows U.S. carbon emissions for 2008. as you would expect the dominant roles of coal for electricity generation and petroleum transportation fuels in the U.S. carbon budget is readily apparent.
The third diagram looks at estimated future U.S. energy use by 2050. The big changes that are apparent relate to the expected growth of renewable sources of electricity, the role of hydrogen as an energy intermediary and the dramatic drop in use of oil (looks like LLNL is a believer in peak oil).
The fourth diagram looks at U.S. energy losses, the biggest single proportion of which is electricity generation, transmission and distribution losses. Notably, more than 55% of current energy consumption in the U.S. is wasted (and I would assume that a similar proportion is wasted in Canada).
LLNL hasn't limited itself to looking only at U.S. energy consumption patterns either. Below are two more diagrams which look at 2007 energy use in Canada and 2006 carbon emissions in Canada.
The biggest difference in energy use patterns when comparing to the U.S. is the truncated lines indicating energy exports - mostly to the U.S.
Comparing carbon emission patterns with those in the U.S. highlights the much smaller role of coal in Canada.
Enjoy.
Comments