Energy consumption per person
grows with the population.
Each additional person needs food,
transportation, housing, and clothing.
Making those things requires
energy consumption.
Wind, water and solar energy provide only
a small share of total energy consumption
today.
According to the BP 2018 Statistical Review
of World Energy, wind, water and solar power
accounted for only 9.4% of total energy
consumption in 2017.
It would take at least 10 more years
for wind, water, and solar power
to reach 20% of total energy
consumption.
Long distance transmission lines
will be needed to transport the
"renewable" electricity from
where it is generated, to where
it will be used.
Maintenance of electrical transmission
lines was an issue in California’s fires,
attributed to the utility PG&E.
A country cannot really depend on
wind, water, and solar power unless
it has a huge, very expensive amount
of battery storage: enough to last
from season-to-season.
from season-to-season.
Battery backup can multiply the
already expensive cost
of renewables by 10x to 20x !
Without battery backup, there would
have to be up to 100% fossil fuel back up,
for windless nights. when wind and
solar energy is not possible (hydro
power would not need backup ).
HOW ABOUT PEOPLE
USING LESS POWER ?
This has happened
in many nations.
If the per person energy use for an
economy declines, the reason is
almost always bad news, such as
a recession, high oil prices,
civil war, etc.
Consider the US:
A major portion of industrial jobs
moved to Asia, but service jobs
did not, so US energy consumption
per person was expected to fall,
while the Asian nations increase.
Some individual nations have
experienced modest reductions
in their energy consumption
per person, not associated with
offshoring manufacturing,
but the causes were not pleasant.
The causes were also not pleasant
for the USSR:
Because energy consumption
per person depends significantly
on what people can afford.
From 2007 and 2014 was
a period when oil prices
tended to be very high,
and there was a serious
recession too.
Spain’s energy consumption
per person fell by 18%
between 2007 and 2014.
Greece’s fell by 24%
over the same period.
The decline was not from good news !
Both Greece and Spain experienced
high unemployment rates, and both
needed debt bailouts to keep
their financial systems operating.
Austerity measures were forced on Greece.
The 2008 to 2014 Spanish financial crisis included
a decline of energy consumption per person
highly correlated with the financial crisis.
Comparing 2017 to 2004,
energy consumption per person
was down 16% for France
and 25% in the UK.
Both Syria and Yemen are examples
of formerly oil-exporting countries
far past their peak oil production.
Between Yemen’s peak in energy
consumption per person (2009)
and the last year shown (2016),
its energy consumption per person
dropped by 66%.
Yemen has been named
by the United Nations
as the country with the
“world’s worst
humanitarian crisis.”
Syria’s energy consumption per person
declined 55% between its peak year (
of 2006, and the last year for which
data are available (2016).
Syria is also involved in a civil war
that has been entered into by others.
Between 2008 and 2017,
energy consumption per person
in Venezuela declined by 23%.
That's a little less than decreases
experienced by the UK and Greece ,
during their periods of decline.