Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Where Does America’s Energy Come From? | Job Creators NetworkJob Creators Network

Where Does America’s Energy Come From? | Job Creators NetworkJob Creators Network

Where Does America’s Energy Come From?

by KEN BRAUN
 
If you listen to politicians and much of the media talk of America’s energy future, you may be getting a false idea about just how relevant certain politically popular energy experimental forms of energy are to keeping the lights on, factories running and cars moving.
First, consider how much energy Americans use for everything: transportation, heating, electricity, industry … all of it. In 2011, the Department of Energy says that was 97.5 quadrillion Btu (British thermal units.)

Here’s where it all of our energy came from in 2011:

36% – Petroleum
25% – Natural Gas
20% – Coal
8% – Nuclear
3.15% – Hydro-electric dams
1.98% – Wood
1.89% – Biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel, etc…)
1.17% – Wind
0.45% – Biomass Waste
0.18% – Geothermal
0.09% – Solar
The most frequently championed and subsidized alternative energy sources in the political arena – wind and solar – still comprise just a tiny portion of our total energy use: Just a few ticks over one percent in 2011. This is despite many years of subsidies and development. Burning wood as a fuel dates back to mankind discovering fire, and it still remains nearly twice as common a fuel source as wind and solar combined.
The most frequent use for wind and solar is in the generation of our electricity. But here as well, these experimental sources still comprise a small amount of the total.

Here is where Americans got their electricity from in 2011:

42% – Coal
25% – Natural Gas
19% – Nuclear
8% – Hydro-electric dams
3% – Wind
1% – “Biomass” (burning wood, paper and food scraps, etc…)
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The first electricity-producing windmill is believed to have been built in 1887. More than 100 years later, it is producing about 3 percent of our electricity.
The first experimental nuclear power plant was built in 1951. Just six years later, a large-scale commercial nuclear plant was delivering power to customers in Pennsylvania. By 1973, about 5 percent of our electricity came from nuclear power. This jumped to 9 percent two years later, and hit the current total of about 20 percent by 1988.
 
Energy Use

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