Worldwide energy supply


Worldwide energy supply is the global production and preparation of fuel, generation of electricity, and energy transport. Energy supply is a vast industry.
Many countries publish statistics on the energy supply of their own country or other countries or the world. World Energy Balances is published by one of the largest organizations in this field, the International Energy Agency IEA.
This collection of energy balances is very large. This article provides a brief description of energy supply, using statistics summarized in tables, of the countries and regions that produce and consume most.
Energy production is 80% fossil. Half of that is produced by China, the United States and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The Gulf States and Norway export most of their production, largely to the European Union and Japan where not enough energy is produced to satisfy demand. Energy production increases slowly, except for solar and wind energy which grows more than 20% per year.
Produced energy, for instance crude oil, is processed to make it suitable for consumption by end users. The supply chain between production and final consumption involves many conversion activities and much trade and transport among countries, causing a loss of one third of energy before it is consumed.
Energy consumption per person in North America is very high while in developing countries it is low and more renewable.
Worldwide carbon dioxide emission from fossil fuel was 37 gigaton in 2017. In view of contemporary energy policy of countries the IEA expects that the worldwide energy consumption in 2040 will have increased more than a quarter and that the goal, set in the Paris Agreement about Climate Change, will not nearly be reached. Several scenarios to achieve the goal are developed.

Primary energy production

This is the worldwide production of energy, extracted or captured directly from natural sources. In energy statistics Primary Energy refers to the first stage where energy enters the supply chain before any further conversion or transformation process.
Energy production is usually classified as
Primary energy assessment follows certain rules to ease measurement and comparison of different kinds of energy. Due to these rules uranium is not counted as PE but as the natural source of nuclear PE. Similarly water and air flow energy that drives hydro and wind turbines, and sunlight that powers solar panels, are not taken as PE but as PE sources.
The table lists the worldwide PE production and the countries/regions producing most of that. In this article Europe does not include Russia.
The amounts are given in million tonnes of oil equivalent per year. The data are of 2017.
Click on a column header to arrange countries/regions by that kind of primary energy.
TotalCoalOil & GasNuclearRenewable
WORLD14000377076506771932
China2450178631665283
United States19933731233219169
Mid-East20301202612
Russia143022211305324
Africa11351575904385
Europe1070159400244266
India5542706810206
Canada510314022651
Indonesia448263105080
Australia40529310308
Brazil29321634123
Kazakhstan1804913001
Mexico1657140316

The top producers of the USA are Texas 20%, Wyoming 9%, Pennsylvania 9%, W Virginia 5% and Oklahoma 5%.
In the Mid-East the Persian Gulf states Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Emirates produce most. A small part comes from Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
The top producers in Africa are Nigeria, S-Africa, Algeria and Angola.
In Europe Norway, France, Germany, UK, Poland and Netherlands produce most.
Of the world renewable supply 68% is biofuel and waste, mostly in developing countries, 18% is generated with hydro power and 14% with other renewables.
For more detailed energy production see
From 2015 to 2017 worldwide production increased 2%, mainly in Russia, the Mid-East and India, while China produced 3% less and the EU 2% less. In 2018 world energy increased 3%, mainly in the USA.
From 2015 to 2017 wind energy increased 37% and solar energy 73%.

Energy conversion and trade

Export minus Import
Mid-East1243
Russia664
Africa309
Australia269
Canada217
Indonesia201
Norway185
United States-174
S-Korea-267
India-330
Japan-400
China-632
Europe-849

Primary energy is converted in many ways to energy carriers, also known as secondary energy.
Electricity generators are driven by
The invention of the solar cell in 1954 started electricity generation by solar panels, connected to a power inverter. Around 2000 mass production of panels made this economic.
Much primary and converted energy is traded among countries, about 5350 Mtoe/a worldwide, mostly oil and gas.
The table lists countries/regions with large difference of export and import.
A negative value indicates that much energy import is needed for the economy.
The quantities are expressed in Mtoe/a and the data are of 2017.
Big transport goes by tanker ship, tank truck, LNG carrier, rail freight transport, pipeline and by electric power transmission.

Total Primary Energy Supply

Country/RegionTPES
Mtoe/a		TPES pp
toe/a
WORLD139701.9
China30632.2
United States21556.6
Europe18263.2
India8820.6
Africa8120.6
Mid-East7503.2
Russia7324.9
Japan4303.4
Brazil2901.4
S-Korea2825.5
Canada2897.9

Total Primary Energy Supply indicates the sum of production and imports subtracting exports and storage changes. For the whole world TPES nearly equals primary energy PE but for countries TPES and PE differ in quantity and quality. Usually secondary energy is involved, e.g., import of an oil refinery product, so TPES is often not PE. P in TPES has not the same meaning as in PE. It refers to energy needed as input to produce some or all energy for end-users.
The table lists the worldwide TPES and the countries/regions using most of that in 2017, and TPES per person.
31% of worldwide primary production is used for conversion and transport, and 6% for non-energy products like lubricants, asphalt and petrochemicals. 63% remains for end-users. Most of the energy lost by conversion occurs in thermal electricity plants and the energy industry own use.

Final consumption

Total final consumption is the worldwide consumption of energy by end-users. This energy consists of fuel and electricity. The tables list amounts, expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent per year and how much of these is renewable energy. Non-energy products are not considered here. The data are of 2017.
Fuel:
The amounts are based on lower heating value.
The first table lists worldwide final consumption and the countries/regions which use most. In developing countries fuel consumption per person is low and more renewable. Canada, Venezuela and Brazil generate most electricity with hydropower.
Country/RegionFuel
Mtoe/a		of which renewableElectricity
Mtoe/a		of which renewable
WORLD700015%183825%
China13576%47625%
United States10548%32117%
Europe90010%27533%
Africa51660%5618%
India44536%10017%
Russia3541%6517%
Japan1753%8316%
Brazil17036%4379%
Indonesia14838%1913%
Canada1319%4466%
Iran1410%225%
Mexico947%2316%
S-Korea856%453%
Australia597%1816%
Argentina457%1130%
Venezuela2326%661%

In Africa 32 of the 48 nations are declared to be in an energy crisis by the World Bank. See Energy in Africa.
The next table shows countries consuming most in Europe.
CountryFuel
Mtoe/a		of which renewableElectricity
Mtoe/a		of which renewable
Germany1599%4533%
France10212%3817%
United Kingdom944%2630%
Italy8610%2535%
Spain599%2032%
Poland5711%1214%
Ukraine375%107%
Netherlands363%915%
Belgium274%719%
Sweden2133%1158%
Austria2119%575%
Romania1920%438%
Finland1734%747%
Portugal1120%439%
Denmark1115%371%
Norway817%1098%

For more details in Europe see Energy in Germany, Energy in France, etc.

Trend

In the period 2005-2017 worldwide final consumption of
Some fuel and electricity is used to construct, maintain and demolish/recycle installations that produce fuel and electricity, such as oil platforms, uranium isotope separators and wind turbines.
For these producers to be economic the ratio of energy returned on energy invested or energy return on investment should be large enough.
There is little consensus in the technical literature about methods and results in calculating these ratios.
Paul Brockway et al. find that such ratios, measured at the primary energy stage at the well, should instead be estimated at the final stage where energy is delivered at end users, including energy needed for conversion and transport. They calculate global EROI time series in the years 1995–2011 for fossil fuels at both primary and final energy stages and concur with common primary-stage estimates ~30, but find very low ratios at the final stage: around 6 and declining. They conclude that low and declining EROI values may lead to constraints on the energy available to society. And that renewables-based EROI may be higher than fossil fuels EROI when measured at the same final energy stage.
If at the final stage the energy delivered is E and the EROI equals R, then the net energy available to society is E-E/R. The percentage available energy is 100-100/R. For R>10 more than 90% is available but for R=2 only 50% and for R=1 none. This steep decline is known as the net energy cliff.
Marco Raugei with 20 coauthors find EROI 9-10 for PV systems in Switserland as the ratio of the total electrical output to the ‘equivalent electrical energy’ investment. They criticize inclusion of energy storage in the calculation of EROI for PV panels or windturbines, as it would make the result incompatible with conventional EROI calculations for other electricity generating installations. Measuring the performance of energy technologies ought to be done in a comprehensive analysis of a country's energy system.

Outlook until 2040

In the Stated Policies Scenario the IEA assesses the likely effects of announced policies, as expressed in official targets and plans. To 2040 the global energy demand will increase a quarter. Global energy-related CO2 emissions will continue to rise, premature deaths linked to air pollution are set to increase, and in 2030 there would still be around 620 million people without access to electricity. This scenario would put considerable strain on all aspects of the global energy system.
The Sustainable Development IEA Scenario is to ensure universal energy access for all by 2030; to bring about sharp reductions in emissions of air pollutants; and to meet global climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement..
In 2030 overall primary energy demand can be kept below today’s level by increasing efficiency, low carbon sources can increase their share to 30%, natural gas and oil increase, coal falls rapidly. CO2 emission can reduce to 25 Gt mainly by increasing efficiency and renewable share. In 2040 67% of electricity can be generated renewable, 11% nuclear and 21% with oil and gas including 5% using carbon capture and storage.
In 2050 low carbon sources share of primary energy supply could be 60% and CO2 emission 10 Gt.
The global annual average energy investment in the period 2020-40 could increase from $2.7 to $3.9 trillion of which $0.5 to $0.7 trillion for renewables.
Many scenario's are possible. The actions taken by governments will be decisive in determining which path to follow. As of 2019, there is still a chance of keeping global warming below 1.5°C if no more fossil fuel power plants are built and some existing fossil fuel power plants are shut down early, together with other measures such as reforestation.
Alternative Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals scenarios are developed by a team of 20 scientists at the University of Technology of Sydney, the German Aerospace Center, and the University of Melbourne, using IEA data but proposing transition to nearly 100% renewables by mid-century, along with steps such as reforestation. Nuclear power and carbon capture are excluded in these scenarios. The researchers say the costs will be far less than the $5 trillion per year governments currently spend subsidizing the fossil fuel industries responsible for climate change.
In the +2.0 C Scenario total primary energy demand in 2040 can be 450 EJ = 10755 Mtoe, or 400 EJ = 9560 Mtoe in the +1.5 Scenario, well below the current production.
Renewable sources can increase their share to 300 EJ in the +2.0 C Scenario or 330 PJ in the +1.5 Scenario in 2040. In 2050 renewables can cover nearly all energy demand. Non-energy consumption will still include fossil fuels. See Fig.5 on p.xxvii.
Global electricity generation from renewable energy sources will reach 88% by 2040 and 100% by 2050 in the alternative scenarios. “New” renewables — mainly wind, solar and geothermal energy — will contribute 83% of the total electricity generated. The average annual investment required between 2015 and 2050, including costs for additional power plants to produce hydrogen and synthetic fuels and for plant replacement, will be around $1.4 trillion.
Shifts from domestic aviation to rail and from road to rail are needed. Passenger car use must decrease in the OECD countries after 2020. The passenger car use decline will be partly compensated by strong increase in public transport rail and bus systems. See Fig.4 on p.xxii.
CO2 emission can reduce from 32 Gt in 2015 to 7 Gt or 2.7 Gt in 2040, and to zero in 2050.