Monday, October 3, 2011

What is the current profile of energy use in the US and the World? Can the current energy consumption profile last?

The United States' energy consumption is approximately 250 kWh/d per person and was determined from a chart provided be our professor.

The world energy consumption was a bit harder to calculate. It was first found that the energy consumption in 2008 for the world was 474 exajoules.

1 exajoule = 2.78 * 10^11 kWh
474 exajoules = 1.3167 * 10^14 kWh

Assume the population of the world in 2008 was 6.9 billion people.

(1.3167 * 10^14 / 6.9 * 10^9) / 365 days = 52.3 kWh/d per person

The current energy consumption profile in the United States and in the world can not last and will not last unless changes are made.

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