Some data doodling - Sources of Energy – India v USA, ten year snapshots - 2002, 2012 and 2022 - Wind and solar less than 5% of energy production in both countries over those 20 years
For some arcane reason, I made the leap between a story on India’s ban on non-Basmati rice production after an 11% rise in rice prices a year before its general election – to energy consumption and its sources.
Then I thought I had better do a comparison between India and the US for some context.
Using data from here for India and then changing the country to the US I came up with the tables on terawatt consumption and percentages. The tables read from 2022 on the left, to 2012 on the right – just to confuse you and I show the percentage usage for each country at the top and bottom.
The data is taken by scrolling over the charts and copying the tables that appear at each year.
India: Energy Country Profile - Our World in Data
Here’s India:
Population grew from 1.1 billion in 2002 to 1.4 billion in 2022 = around +30%
Here’s the USA
Population grew from 288.3 million in 2002 to 333.3 million in 2022 = around +16%
In absolute numbers, US energy production has barely changed in 20 years, despite an extra 45 million people.
The largest change in US energy production is not wind and solar. It is a switch between gas and coal.
Solar produced 2% of US energy from zero 20 years ago and wind 2.6% from almost nothing twenty years ago. Coal produced 13% less energy, made up for with 10% more gas and 1.7% more hydro.
For India, energy production is up a little over 160% over the 20 years for its 30% increase in population.
India used coal to produce 3.6 terawatt hours MORE since 2022, compared to a reduction of 3.2 terawatt hours for the US. India also used oil to produce an extra 1.5 terawatt hours compared to a reduction of 0.6 terawatt hours over 20 years for the US.
India wind and solar made up just 4.25% of energy production from zero 20 years ago.
So, to replace hydrocarbon as a source of energy, think of multiplying the acres of windmill forest and solar plantations by a factor of 25 - then maybe increase that increase by another 50% to factor in some redundancy for cloudy, windless days in most places (prime sites are already in use for wind and sun).
You never know, maybe technology will advance a lot faster and batteries will become all-weather powered and no solar or wind will be needed at all! Maybe a fire-resistant, heavy plastic polymer paint on the car or some such!
Onwards
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