“Other” Renewables

April 1, 2011 — The Editors

In yesterday’s market size post we looked at non hydro-power renewable sources of electricity. These renewables are usually broken into four categories, Wind, Geothermal, Solar and Other. So, what does this “other” include? This category covers a wide range of methods for generating electricity and what follows is only a partial list of them: waste incineration, wood burning, connecting exercise bicycles in gyms to capture the kinetic energy they generate during spinning classes, and the harnessing of elephants and/or oxen to a grinding wheel used to turn a series of interlocking turbines. While each of these methods represent but a small fraction of all electric production, together they accounted for 6.8% of renewable electricity generation in 2007.

For a thorough discussion of these many methods of generating electricity, and statistics for their prevelance in the United States, the LaMarotte blog has a wonderful post on the topic, available here.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2007
Market size: 235 Billion Kilowatt hours
Source: “Table 12. OECD and Non-OECD net renewable electricity generation by energy source, 2007-2035,” International Energy Outlook 2010, report available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
Happy April Fools Day!

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Electricity from Renewables

March 31, 2011 — The Editors

Renewable Energy Sources Worldwide

Hydroelectric power plants are the largest producers of electricity from renewable sources. As we saw in yesterday’s Market Size post, they represented 15.97% of world electricity production in 2008. That same year, electricity produced by all other renewable sources accounted for 2.4% of electricity generated. While responsible for only a small percentage of all electricity generation now, renewable sources are forecast to grow steadily through 2035 at which point the non hydro-power portion will account for 7.26% of global production.

The pie chart shows how electricity is generated worldwide and provides a detail of the small pie slice that represents non hydro-power renewables. The renewable energy source that is forecast to grow most quickly in the next decade is solar.

Please note that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections exclude electricity generated by so called off-grid sources, thus renewable energy consumed at the site of production. Energy producted by solar panels installed, for example, on a private home for the sole and exclusive use of the residents of that home is not counted in the EIA projections. If, however, those solar panels are tied into the public electric grid, then the electricity they generate is accounted for in the EIA projections. Time will tell how significant these off-grid electricity generation resources become.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2007 and 2035
Market size: 463 and 2,554 Billion Kilowatt hours respectively (please note this is the size of electicity generation from non hydro-power renewable sources)
Source: “Table 12. OECD and Non-OECD net renewable electricity generation by energy source, 2007-2035,” International Energy Outlook 2010, report available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Posted in Electric Power, Energy, National Infrastructure, Natural Resources. 1 Comment »

Hydroelectric Power

March 30, 2011 — The Editors

The production of electricity with hydroelectric power plants represents 80% of all renewable electric power generation worldwide. Hydro plants work by using the flow of water to turn a turbine, which then turns a metal shaft in an electric generator, which is the motor that produces electricity. Hydroelectric Power Plants accounted for 15.97% of all electric power produced worldwide in 2008.

In the United States, 6% of electricity is generated in hydro plants, a relatively small percentage compared with other nations. The ability to use hydroelectric power plants to generate electricity is, of course, to a large extent a matter of having the resources needed to harness water’s power. Paraguay, for example, produces 100% of its electricity—as well as electricity enough to export—from hydroelectric power plants while Saudi Arabia has no hydroelectric power generation. A chart which shows the top twenty countries in the world based on their production of hydro-power and based on the same source material is presented on the blog, LaMarotte, here.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2008
Market size: 2,998 Billion Kilowatt hours
Source: “Table 1387. Net Electricity Generation by Type and Country: 2008,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, page 867, available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Posted in Electric Power, Energy, National Infrastructure, Water. 2 Comments »

Nuclear Power Plants

March 29, 2011 — The Editors

Energy Pie Chart

Electricity is generated in a variety of ways which are broken down into the six categories presented in the pie chart to the right. Each method of generating electricity has its pros and cons, its costs, risks, benefits, and advantage, all of which are much debated as we grapple with how best to produce electricity for a world whose demand for it grows annually. And growth in consumption is likely to speed up with the transition from the internal combustion engine to electric-powered vehicles (no pun intended).

Nuclear power plants accounted for 13.8% of global electricity generation in 2008. Nations who use nuclear power generation for the largest percentages of their electricity needs include France (78%), Belgium (55.8%), and Ukraine (47.1%). To see a nice chart of the top twenty leading nuclear power dependent nations, visit the LaMarotte blog, here.

Worth noting is the fact that Japan is among the twenty nations who depend most on nuclear power to generate its electricity. It comes in 10th on that list with 23.7% of its electricity generated at nuclear power plants in 2008.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2008
Market size: 2,590 Billion Kilowatt hours
Source: “Table 1387. Net Electricity Generation by Type and Country: 2008,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, page 867, available online here. The data used to make the pie chart are for 2008 and come from the EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2010, available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

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Electric Power Generation

March 28, 2011 — The Editors

By way of noting this year’s “Earth Hour” (May 26, 2011)—as well as the ongoing challenges being faced by the Japanese as they struggle to get a damaged nuclear power plant stabilized—this week our market size items will all be related to electric energy markets.

We are voracious consumers of electricity, particularly in the industrialized world where even many toothbrushes plug into an electric outlet. Today’s market size is the size of the world’s capacity for generating electricity. Tomorrow we’ll start breaking this down by how the electric power is generated, with coal, hydroelectric dam, nuclear plant, solar panels, etc.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2008
Market size: 18,778.7 Billion Kilowatt hours
Source: “Table 1387. Net Electricity Generation by Type and Country: 2008,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, page 867, availalbe online here.
Original Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

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Hydroelectric Power Market

October 28, 2010 — The Editors

Over the period 2002 to 2007, the cost of energy rose steadily, as did the revenues generated by those companies in the business of extracting (in the case of fossil fuels), processing, moving, storing, and selling energy. For that reason, it is surprising to see that hydroelectric power generation in the United States actually saw a decline in revenues, as well as employment over the period. In 2002 the hydroelectric power generation industry employed 6,360 people and in 2007 it employed only 3,795.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2007
Market size: $2.73 Billion and $2.24 Billion respectively
Source: “2007 Economic Census: Sector 22: Utilities: Preliminary Comparitive Statistics for the United States 2007 and 2002″, July 31, 2009, [Online] here.
Original Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Posted in Electric Power, Energy, Market Size. No Comments »
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