According to the International Energy Agency, global primary energy production in 2012 totaled 13,400 Mtoe [1]. Oil accounted for 31.4% of the total, coal and peat accounted for 29%, natural gas for 21.3%, and nuclear for 4.8%. Only 13.5% of primary energy production came from sources that are or can be renewable: hydropower, biofuels, waste, geothermal, solar, and wind. As discussed in Chapter 2, society depends heavily on fossil fuels because they are convenient and “cheap,” from a market perspective. However, the broader lens of sustainability requires that we reexamine this assumption.
As discussed in Chapter 1, in the United States, coal overtook wood as the largest energy source in around 1890, with oil and gas overtaking ...
Get Principles of Sustainable Energy Systems, Third Edition, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
