Energy Is Wealth

Energy vs GDP

The graph is from Wiki Media based on data from the International Energy Organization [pdf].
I think the graph maker intended that the KW measure be averaged over 24/7/365 which would make sense (which is to say multiply by 24*7*365 to get the KWh total). Leave it to an engineer. In any case that is not the only one out there. Watts Up With That has a nice one with tons of oil equivalent.
What does this mean (generally)? Anything that lowers the supply of energy is a bad thing. Anything that lowers consumption is a bad thing. Efficiency tends to take care of itself. Engineers are always looking for cost effective ways of increasing the efficiency of use. But according to Jevons Paradox increasing efficiency INCREASES consumption. Dang.
Howard T. Odum in his book Environment, Power and Society for the Twenty-First Century: The Hierarchy of Energy discusses what energy flows mean for the bioisphere. I haven’t read this edition but the previous edition Environment, Power, and Society, was excellent.
Anther book on the subject is The Second Law of Life: Energy, Technology, and the Future of Earth As We Know It. The product description makes a very good point.

Even actions we take to improve the environment may actually do more damage than good. For example, recycling is considered environmentally, socially and politically correct. Under the influence of entropy, however, it is a prolific waster of energy; we must look at entire systems, not just parts.

A point also well made at Energy, Efficiency, and Technology Magazine.

My friend Terry and I had each finished off a bottle of beer. I looked around for a recycling bin while Terry just pitched his bottle in the trash.
Was Terry indifferent to the environment? Nah. He works at one of the biggest breweries in the U.S. and knows first-hand what happens to recycled glass. “We can’t use recycled glass for making bottles. It’s just too brittle. So glass put in recycling bins generally ends up in landfills anyway,” he explains.
Terry knows what he’s talking about. Canada’s National Post reports that all the glass collected last year by recycling programs in Calgary, Edmonton, and several other Canadian cities ended up landfilled because there were no buyers for it. The situation is similar for plastic. Reports are that Germany has millions of tons of recyclable plastics piled up in fields because nobody wants the stuff. And it is literally more expensive to collect some recyclables than to just pitch them. San Francisco’s Dept. of Waste figures it pays $4,000/ton to recycle plastic bags for which it receives $32/ton.

And it is not just money/wealth that is affected by energy flows. It also affects politics as discussed in A thermodynamic explanation of politics.

There are major evolutionary implications in the ability of a species to distribute itself across space and time, not to mention the curious thermodynamics associated with this distribution. That is, species that can modulate their thermodynamic properties in response to environmental changes dramatically increase their probability of survival. In humans, there is no better example of thermodynamic modulation than conservatism and liberalism.
One of the more prominent biogeographic variations between conservatives and liberals is population density. The conservative-liberal asymmetries in population density are easily seen in the voting patterns of urban, suburban, and rural environments. As a general rule, the greater the population density, the more liberal the population.

Well isn’t that interesting. Politics may have more to do with energy consumption habits than right and wrong. Dang. Right and wrong may in fact be defined by energy consumption levels.
So who is correct? No one. It depends on where you live. Now can we all get along?
Update: 6 Myths About Oil.
Cross Posted at Power and Control


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3 responses to “Energy Is Wealth”

  1. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    California, and probably other states, have been interfering in electricity pricing. For instance, Pacific Gas & Electric has a state mandated price schedule that increases cost per KWH for increased usage. So an average home is allowed a certain base amount, say 500 KWH per month at 11 cents p/KWH. After that it increases until after 1500 KWH it can cost 40 cents p/KWH.
    So lets say you want to operate a small business from you garage, one that uses 3 phase electric motors that will consume 2,500 KWH per month. You are looking at a bill of about $1,000.00 or more.
    PG&E won’t let you downgrade to a commercial rate (which would still be at about 20 cents p/KWH) since part of the usage is non-commercial.
    It is more cost effective to deliver MORE electricity to the same address than LESS. This is because there are fixed costs associated with power transmission, like power lines, transformers, meter readers, maintenance of equipment, etc. which cannot be met by low usage customers. But the state wants to decrease electric consumption, so it reverses the natural pricing. What this does is discourage small business start-ups.
    You know, people like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, who start on a shoestring out of their garages.
    But the government now makes it all the more difficult for innovators and start-ups.
    And, as electric prices are artificially increased to subsidize wind, solar, and bio generation, more hardship will fall on about everyone, not just small businesses.
    We are living in a insane country, governed by idiots.

  2. Veeshir Avatar
    Veeshir

    Two of my nieces are in college right now so they think I’m some sort of crazed Waco ready to happen.
    I always try to tell them that energy use=standard of living when they get all global warmmongery on me.
    Sure, they don’t mind spending a dollar a gallon more (it’s not their money after all), but they can’t seem to understand that the poor guy who’s raising a family on $50k/year will then have to decide between gas to get to work or a vacation for the family that year.
    And they really can’t understand that poor people in Africa have to decide between starvation and selling their kids when the price of corn goes up because of biofuel, which drives up the price of other food as corn feeds animals and other industries will buy more rice or wheat when corn goes up.

  3. Darius Avatar

    I’m reminded of a Pournelle short collected in “High Justice” called, IIRC, “Power to the People”, where the connection between access to energy and wealth/livelihood were explicitly drawn.