[HN Gopher] History of energy consumption in the United States, ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       History of energy consumption in the United States, 1775-2009
       (2011)
        
       Author : adamnemecek
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2022-01-05 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.eia.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.eia.gov)
        
       | aquova wrote:
       | I was rather confused by this until I saw the 2011 date. Things
       | have changed quite a bit, it doesn't appear at all on this chart,
       | but the US now consumes 3.0 quadrillion Btu from wind energy in
       | 2021, more than any other renewable.[0]
       | 
       | [0]: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48396
        
         | vlovich123 wrote:
         | Where does plastics manufacturing fall under here? Is it
         | industrial + electrical?
         | 
         | Also, according to that chart, 0% of the US energy comes from
         | nuclear but [1] has it at 20%. What's going on?
         | 
         | [1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
        
           | OldManAndTheCpp wrote:
           | Are you asking about the feedstock input to plastic, or the
           | energy input? I doubt that the Energy Information
           | Administration tracks feedstock inputs, as they are not
           | consumed as energy.
        
       | lqet wrote:
       | I was expecting something as impressive as this:
       | https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co84189...
        
       | burntoutfire wrote:
       | The chart is missing food as energy source (converted to work by
       | animals and people who ate it and used the energy it gave them to
       | do manual labor). It's probably insignificant now, but should
       | dominate the XVIII century part of the chart.
        
         | tobyjsullivan wrote:
         | I was curious so I estimated. If we take daily intake at 8000
         | BTUs (~2000 calories), then we get 0.015Q BTUs in 1800 (US
         | population: 5M[0]), 0.22Q BTUs in 1900 (US population: 76M),
         | and 0.82Q BTUs in 2000 (US population: 223M).
         | 
         | That's only humans. Factoring in all working animals, maybe we
         | assume some multiple of that. 2x? 10x? 100x seems too much.
         | 
         | In the end, I'm not convinced it would be significant enough to
         | warrant inclusion - even if only because US population was so
         | relatively small.
         | 
         | This does lead me to wonder what the graph looks like for
         | energy consumption per capita.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_the_Uni...
        
           | burntoutfire wrote:
           | Wood at the beginning of the period covered by chart is at
           | 0.2 Q BTUs, so, using the 10x factor, food would be on the
           | same order of magnitude.
        
         | adamnemecek wrote:
         | It's also missing the amount of sunlight Earth gets from the
         | Sun that's not used as solar energy. Also the energy that
         | plants receive as nutrients from soil and air. It's also
         | missing the energy that a mother transfers to her child in the
         | form of love.
        
           | burntoutfire wrote:
           | I assume the chart is only counting energy important for
           | human economy (and not whatever it is that you're bringing
           | up). Food as energy source was crucial part of the energy mix
           | before fossil fuels - food-powered animals were tilling
           | fields, hauling goods, powering machinery etc. (not to
           | mention less savory aspects of it like slavery - slaves were
           | essentially food-powered machines for picking cotton,
           | harvesting sugar cane etc.). Nowadays majority of that work
           | is done by machines powered by fossil fuels, and food is used
           | mostly for us to sustain ourselves (i.e. prevent starvation)
           | and not as an economically-productive resource.
           | 
           | I suspect food was the biggest energy source in the economy,
           | above wood and renewables (i.e. watermills and windmills
           | powering various machineries and pumps).
        
           | Manuel_D wrote:
           | Food as an energy source is actually an important aspect.
           | Things like domesticated animals represent significant
           | sources of energy, on the order of thousands of calories per
           | day. More nutritious crops also confer a significant boost to
           | available energy. This had significant impact on the
           | disparate levels of development between Eurasia and the
           | Americas before the early modern period.
           | 
           | "The Measure of Civilization" by Ian Morris is a book I'd
           | recommend on this topic.
        
       | z8rHZM8Svhu8hE2 wrote:
       | In this context, the old lecture on the exponential function of
       | energy consumption comes to mind.
       | 
       | Arithmetic, Population and Energy - a talk by Al Bartlett:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O133ppiVnWY
        
       | rob_c wrote:
       | it's asif one generation got used to the good times about 50
       | years ago in data...
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-01-05 23:00 UTC)