physics

World energy supply and consumption

World energy supply and consumption is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand World energy supply and consumption rather than just read about it. In short: World energy supply and consumption refers to the global supply of energy resources and the consumption of the latter. The system of global energy supply consists of the development, refinement, and trade of energy.

Key takeaways

World energy supply and consumption belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect World energy supply and consumption to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of World energy supply and consumption from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

World energy supply and consumption refers to the global supply of energy resources and the consumption of the latter. The system of global energy supply consists of the development, refinement, and trade of energy. Energy supplies may exist in various forms such as raw resources or more processed and refined forms of energy. The raw energy resources include for example coal, unprocessed oil and gas, uranium. In comparison, the refined forms of energy include for example refined oil that can be used as fuel or to generate electricity. Energy resources may be used in various different ways, depending on the specific resource (e.g. coal), and intended end use (industrial, residential, etc.). Energy production and consumption play a significant role in the global economy. It is needed in industry and global transportation. The total energy supply chain, from production to final consumption, involves many activities that cause a loss of useful energy. Total energy consumption tends to increase by about 1–2% per year. As of 2022, 80% of energy consumption is derived from fossil fuels. More recently, renewable energy has been growing rapidly, averaging about a 20% increase per year in the 2010s. Two key problems with energy production and consumption are greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution. Of the approximately 50 billion tonnes of worldwide annual greenhouse gas emissions, 36 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide was a result of energy use (almost all from fossil fuels) in 2021. Many scenarios have been envisioned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, usually by the name of net zero emissions. There is a clear connection between energy consumption per capita, and GDP per capita. As such, richer and more industrialized countries consume significantly more energy per person when compared to lower-income countries. The Gulf States and Russia are major energy exporters, due to their large petroleum and natural gas reserves. Their customers include the European Union and China. A significant lack of energy supplies is called an energy crisis.

Primary energy production

Primary energy refers to the first form of energy encountered, as raw resources collected directly from energy production, before any conversion or transformation of the energy occurs. Energy production is usually classified as:

Fossil, using coal, crude oil, and natural gas; Nuclear, using uranium; Renewable, using biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind, tidal, wave, among others. Primary energy assessment by IEA follows certain rules to ease measurement of different kinds of energy. These rules are controversial. Water and air flow energy that drives hydro and wind turbines, and sunlight that powers solar panels, are not taken as PE, which is set at the electric energy produced. But fossil and nuclear energy are set at the reaction heat, which is about three times the electric energy. This measurement difference can lead to underestimating the economic contribution of renewable energy. Enerdata displays data for "Total energy / production: Coal, Oil, Gas, Biomass, Heat and Electricity" and for "Renewables / % in electricity production: Renewables, non-renewables". The table lists worldwide PE and the countries producing most (76%) of that in 2021, using Enerdata. The amounts are rounded and given in million tonnes of oil equivalent per year (1 Mtoe = 11.63 TWh (41.9 petajoules), where 1 TWh = 109 kWh) and % of Total. Renewable is Biomass plus Heat plus renewable percentage of Electricity production (hydro, wind, solar). Nuclear is nonrenewable percentage of Electricity production. The above-mentioned underestimation of hydro, wind and solar energy, compared to nuclear and fossil energy, applies also to Enerdata. The 2021 world total energy production of 14,800 MToe corresponds to a little over 172 PWh / year, or about 19.6 TW of power generation.

Energy conversion

Energy resources must be processed in order to make them suitable for final consumption. For example, there may be various impurities in raw coal mined or raw natural gas that was produced from an oil well that may make it unsuitable to be burned in a power plant. Primary energy is converted in many ways to energy carriers, also known as secondary energy:

Coal mainly goes to thermal power stations. Coke is derived by destructive distillation of bituminous coal. Crude oil goes mainly to oil refineries Natural-gas goes to natural-gas processing plants to remove contaminants such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, and to adjust the heating value. It is used as fuel gas, also in thermal power stations. Nuclear reaction heat is used in thermal power stations. Biomass is used directly or converted to biofuel. Electricity generators are driven by steam or gas turbines in a thermal plant, or water turbines in a hydropower station, or wind turbines, usually in a wind farm. The invention of the solar cell in 1954 started electricity generation by solar panels, connected to a power inverter. Mass production of panels around the year 2000 made this economic.

Energy trade

Much primary and converted energy is traded among countries. The table lists countries with large difference of export and import in 2021, expressed in Mtoe. A negative value indicates that much energy import is needed for the economy. Russian gas exports were reduced a lot in 2022, as pipelines to Asia plus LNG export capacity is much less than the gas no longer sent to Europe. Transport of energy carriers is done by tanker ship, tank truck, LNG carrier, rail freight transport, pipeline and by electric power transmission.

Total energy supply

Total energy supply (TES) indicates the sum of production and imports subtracting exports and storage changes. For the whole world TES nearly equals primary energy (PE) because imports and exports cancel out, but for countries TES and PE differ in quantity, and also in quality as secondary energy is involved, e.g., import of an oil refinery product. TES is all energy required to supply energy for end users.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with World energy supply and consumption

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what World energy supply and consumption claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to World energy supply and consumption before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about World energy supply and consumption ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of World energy supply and consumption

In research: World energy supply and consumption appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses World energy supply and consumption in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: World energy supply and consumption is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Energy by region, Energy consumption, Energy policy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for World energy supply and consumption outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study World energy supply and consumption in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what World energy supply and consumption means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain World energy supply and consumption out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is World energy supply and consumption in simple terms?

Why does World energy supply and consumption matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study World energy supply and consumption?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on World energy supply and consumption.