US Energy Map

Posted on June 11, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Here’s a great example of how to use a graphic to convey a ton of information. It shows all the sources and uses of energy consumed by the US, and how much of it is lost, in a single picture. It’s from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and it’s slide 31 of 50 in this PowerPoint deck by Marty Sereno of UCSD on Peak Oil. The whole deck is worth a read. Thanks to reader Ken Roberts for the link.

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3 Responses to US Energy Map

otterhound says:

June 12, 2005 at 14:43

The entire powerpoint presentation is excellent! Highly recommended to bring you up to speed on peak oil. I was intrigued by his claim that nuclear fusion had a EROEI of less than 1.0. I had no idea.
Evelyn Mitchell says:

June 13, 2005 at 13:34

What a great diagram!The energy losses in electrial transmission is much greater than I expected. Would a move to more on-site production (supported by electrical grid backup and excess production sharing) help with that 26.3% loss? Assuming of course that one has already taken steps to improve the efficiency of the devices they have that use electricity.It’s a huge opportunity, and I was surprised that it’s bigger even than the opportunity in improving vehicle efficiencies.Thanks again Dave!
Marty Sereno says:

June 14, 2005 at 23:26

hithe off-the-cuff comment about nuclear EROEI being < 1.0 in the 1960’s was a little cryptic/misleading. Much of the fissionable uranium prepared in the 1960’s was for making bomb cores, and for selling nuclear reactor fuel to other countries. Nuclear fission using currently available uranium ore still has an EROEI > 1.0, but there is a limited amount of high quality uranium ore. There is a small amount of uranium in sea water, too, but it’t not even vaguely practical to extract it as an energy source.cheers,marty