In my ongoing effort to bore my online colleagues into a vegi-like stupor, I am presenting some of the challenges we have to providing energy to the end user. Below is a chart from the government energy information agency on our historical energy consumption. The main point of this post is to show how we have grown accustomed to electricity because of the convenience. But electricity is one of the least efficient types of energy.





As you can see, we have been living with huge amounts of energy loss.

What exactly are the "losses"? In 2000, for example, approximately 40 quadrillion Btu of energy were consumed by the electric power sector to generate electricity in the United States, but only 12 quadrillion Btu worth of electricity were actually used directly by consumers. Where did the other 28 quadrillion Btu go? Energy is never destroyed but it does change form. The chemical energy contained in fossil fuels, for example, is converted at the generator to the desired electrical energy. Because of theoretical and practical limits on the efficiency of conversion equipment, much of the energy in the fossil fuels is "lost," mostly as waste heat. (The overall energy efficiency of a system can be increased through the tandem production of electricity and some form of useful thermal energy. This process, known as cogeneration, reduces waste energy by utilizing otherwise unwanted heat in the form of steam, hot water, or hot air for other purposes, such as operating pumps or for space heating or cooling.)

In addition to the conversion losses, line losses occur during the transmission and distribution of electricity as it is transferred via connecting wires from the generating plant to substations (transmission), where its voltage is lowered, and from the substations to end users (distribution), such as homes, hospitals, stores, schools, and businesses. The generating plant itself uses some of the electricity. In the end, for every three units of energy that are converted to create electricity, only about one unit actually reaches the end user.

From the same source, here is the cost for electricity as compared to other sources.


So when we hear about the virtues of electric cars, we have to consider the source of the electricity that is actually fueling those vehicles. If the source is a coal or oil fired plant, we are actually doing ourselves a huge disservice. Not only is it waisting oil but actually causing more pollution at an added expense to the consumer.

RJ

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