The world gets back to burning

[phantom power]

These figures are 2010 versus 2009.

Robust growth was seen in all regions and in almost all types of energy use: the world consumed more of every main fuel bar one than it had in any previous year. Consumption of oil, which accounts for 34% of the world’s primary energy by BP’s calculations, rose by 3.1%. Coal, at 30% the number two fuel, was up by 7.6%, growing faster than at any time since 2003. Consumption of gas, which contributes 24%, was up by 7.4%, the biggest annual growth since 1984.

The growth in fossil fuels was so strong that although non-fossil-fuel energy also had a record year, its share of the world total primary energy decreased a little. Hydro (6.5%) saw its biggest annual increase on record, in part due to more dams and in part due to a lot of rain; Christof Rühl, BP’s chief economist, notes there was more precipitation in 2010 than in any year in the past century. Other renewables grew impressively too, thanks to countries all round the world continuing to pile on new wind capacity. That said, non-hydro renewables still check in at only 1.3% of global energy consumption—1.8% if you include biofuels.

Of all the fuels, only nuclear had seen better years; 2% growth over 2009 still left it a little below its levels in 2005 and 2006. Ten years ago nuclear and hydro were pretty evenly pegged as energy providers; last year hydro provided 20% more electricity. After the disaster at Fukushima, with its attendant closure of a lot of Japanese and German nuclear capacity, nuclear will undoubtedly fall further behind still.

...

Most of China’s growth came from burning more coal: in 2000 China accounted for just under a third of world coal use; in 2010 a staggering 48.2%. Repeat that sort of expansion on a smaller scale for a number of other countries and you see why coal is going up in the global mix. You also see why the world’s energy-related carbon-dioxide emissions have grown even faster than its energy use—by 5.8% last year, on BP’s figures. That is the fastest growth since 1969.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/06/energy-statistics

[GliderGuider]

1. The proportion of the increase by fuel is instructive.

According to the newly released BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2011 the world's primary energy consumpion increased by 5.6% from 2009 to 2010.
Broken down by fuel, that increase consisted of:

Coal         39%
Natural Gas  31%
Oil          19%
Hydro         6%
Renewables    3%
Nuclear       2%

Fossil fuel contributed 89% of the increase: 566 mtoe.
Renewables contributed just 3% of the increase: 21 mtoe.

Now, we can all be ecstatic that the nuclear dragon appears to have been hobbled. Unfortunately for anyone who thinks that the most significant ecological threat facing humanity is Carbon dioxide, these numbers are frankly catastrophic. According to the same source, last year's CO2 emissions were up almost 6% from 2009, to 33.16 trillion tonnes.

Performance like this is precisely why more and more of us are skeptical about the claims of eventual salvation coming from the advocates of renewable energy. And it's why I believe that global Economic collapse is probably the only thing that will help.

[phantom power]

2. It will be interesting to see the numbers for 2011, as these are all pre-Fukushima

[Yo_Mama]

3. Japan is boosting thermal

In the short term, what else can they do?

But in July they are supposed to restart several nuclear reactors, and over the next decade they are going to work at renewables.

Still, energy transformations don't come quickly, and it is always faster to build a coal/gas plant or run the ones you have flat out.