Energy Usage at a Macro Scale

One thing we can be sure of when it comes to energy - we use a lot of it. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) the US used 97.5 quadrillion btus of primary energy in 2011.

That is 97,500,000,000,000,000.

So where did all of this energy come from?

The largest primary energy source is petroleum which accounted for 36 percent of energy use in 2011. This is followed by natural gas at 25 percent, coal with 20 percent, renewables at 9 percent, and nuclear at 8 percent.

In future posts we will devote a bit more time to each primary energy source and consider how this usage has changed over time.