It’s hard to comprehend big numbers. Most of the numbers around energy consumption are big. With that in mind, I found this helped me wrap my head around the need for alternative energy sources:
Take all the power stations in the United States. Together, they produce almost 5000 gigawatts of electricity – enough to boil several billion kettles simultaneously.
Now imagine building another five power stations for every one that already exists in the United States. That is about the amount of electricity generation that the world is on track to add over the next 20 years. And three-quarters of the new stations will use fossil fuels.
Five for one. That’s insane.
Why is it “insane” for people who are living in poverty to use more electricity as part & parcel of their efforts to bring themselves *out* of poverty?
And why isn’t GE doing more to inform people about the benefits of nuclear energy? Sure, it’s more politically-correct and less controversial to go on and on about wind & solar..but sometimes, real leadership requires controversy.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear, the scale is insane, not the reason for using electricity, which is understandable.
As for your second question, I’m not sure.
1)Check the New Scientist link again: the 5000 GW number was wrong and has been corrected to 1000 GW
2)Presumably, the 5X number was derived by assuming that a broader % of the world’s population will use electricity at the same rate as Americans do.
3)But something is wrong with the number. From the IEA executive summary:
“World electricity demand is projected to grow at an annual rate
of 2.5% to 2030″
There is no way you can get from a 2.5% annual growth rate to a 5X multiple in 20 years.
I think New Scientist is going to be removed from my list of credible sources.