U.S. energy usage down in 2008
July 21st, 2009 by Jim JustEstimated U.S. energy use dropped 2.27% in 2008 to 99.2 quadrillion BTUs (”quads”), down from 101.5 quadrillion BTUs in 2007 (a BTU or British Thermal Unit is equivalent to about 1.055 kilojoules).
Energy use in the industrial and transportation sectors declined by 1.17 and 0.9 quads respectively, while commercial and residential use slightly climbed. The drop in transportation and industrial use – which are both heavily dependent on petroleum – is largely due to the summer 2008 spike in oil prices and the economic recession.
Of the 99.2 quads consumed, only 42.15 ended up as energy services. The remainder – called “rejected energy” – is wasted energy, such as wasted heat from power plants. The ratio of energy services to the total amount of energy used is a measure of energy efficiency. In 2008, that’s 42.5% efficiency, a little better than 2007’s 42.4% efficiency.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reports the U.S. used more solar, nuclear, biomass and wind energy in 2008 than they did in 2007 and less coal and petroleum during the same time frame and only slightly increased its natural gas consumption, while geothermal energy use remained the same. However, they didn’t break out the numbers.
You can do that yourself by comparing these charts. Renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal, & biomass) accounted for 7.28 BTUs, or 7.34% of energy use, in 2008. In 2007, the same four sources accounted for 6.81 BTUs or 6.71% of energy use. All of that increase production came from solar and wind.