Energy Production

Extracted Attributes

• Definition

  Field of activities focused on obtaining energy from natural resources, including renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel sources, and recovering wasted energy.

• Societal Uses

  Transportation, manufacturing, illumination, heating and air conditioning, communication (industrial, commercial, agricultural, domestic purposes)

• Industry Sectors (New)

  Renewable energy (alternative and sustainable fuels)

• Resource Classification

  Primary or secondary; non-renewable or renewable

• Industry Sectors (Conventional)

  Petroleum, natural gas, electrical power, nuclear

• US Electricity Generation Mix (2022)

  Natural gas, renewable sources (wind, hydropower, solar, biomass, geothermal), coal, and nuclear energy

• Renewable Share of US Electricity (2022)

  About 21%

• Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Contribution

  Approximately three-quarters (mainly from burning fossil fuels)

Timeline

• Our World in Data published its page on 'Energy Production and Consumption'. (Source: web_search_results)

  2020-07-01

• Most of the US electricity was generated by natural gas, renewable sources, coal, and nuclear energy, with renewables accounting for about 21%. (Source: web_search_results)

  2022-01-01

• Minor changes were made to Our World in Data's 'Energy Production and Consumption' text. (Source: web_search_results)

  2024-01-01

• Potential US administration's near-term energy strategy relies on cheap and abundant natural gas to power industrial and technological resurgence. (Source: document_6fe8de57-cccf-428f-9e98-50534833bad5)

  XXXX-XX-XX

• Potential US administration's long-term energy vision involves a renaissance in nuclear energy, accelerating deployment of Gen 4 Nuclear Reactors and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). (Source: document_6fe8de57-cccf-428f-9e98-50534833bad5)

  XXXX-XX-XX

Energy development

Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from natural resources. These activities include the production of renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel derived sources of energy, and for the recovery and reuse of energy that would otherwise be wasted. Energy conservation and efficiency measures reduce the demand for energy development, and can have benefits to society with improvements to environmental issues. Societies use energy for transportation, manufacturing, illumination, heating and air conditioning, and communication, for industrial, commercial, agricultural and domestic purposes. Energy resources may be classified as primary resources, where the resource can be used in substantially its original form, or as secondary resources, where the energy source must be converted into a more conveniently usable form. Non-renewable resources are significantly depleted by human use, whereas renewable resources are produced by ongoing processes that can sustain indefinite human exploitation. Thousands of people are employed in the energy industry. The conventional industry comprises the petroleum industry, the natural gas industry, the electrical power industry, and the nuclear industry. New energy industries include the renewable energy industry, comprising alternative and sustainable manufacture, distribution, and sale of alternative fuels.

Web Search Results

• Energy Mix - Our World in Data

  Energy production – mainly the burning of fossil fuels – accounts for around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions. Not only is energy production the largest driver of climate change, but the burning of fossil fuels and biomass also comes at a large cost to human health: at least five million deaths are attributed to air pollution each year. [...] 7. The remaining quarter comes from industrial processes (mainly cement production), agriculture, land use change, and waste. 8. This is even clearer when we focus on global _electricity_ production: nuclear declined almost as much as renewables gained. ### Cite this work Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this article, please also cite the underlying data sources. This article can be cited as:

• Electricity Production and Distribution - Alternative Fuels Data Center

  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, most of the nation's electricity was generated by natural gas, renewable sources, coal, and nuclear energy in 2022. Renewable sources of electricity include wind, hydropower, solar power, biomass, and geothermal. Together, these sources generated about 21% of the country's electricity in 2022. [...] To produce electricity, a turbine generator set converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. In the cases of natural gas, coal, nuclear fission, biomass, petroleum, geothermal, and solar thermal, the heat that is produced is used to create steam, which moves the blades of the turbine. In the cases of wind power and hydropower, turbine blades are moved directly by flowing wind and water, respectively. Solar photovoltaic panels convert sunlight directly to electricity using semiconductors. [...] The amount of energy produced by each source depends on the mix of fuels and energy sources used in your area. To learn more, see the emissions section. Learn more about electricity production from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. Electricity Transmission and Distribution -----------------------------------------

• Electricity generation - Wikipedia

  Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery (transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its storage, using for example, the pumped-storage method. [...] Consumable electricity is not freely available in nature, so it must be "produced", transforming other forms of energy to electricity. Production is carried out in power stations, also called "power plants". Electricity is most often generated at a power plant by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by heat engines fueled by combustion or nuclear fission, but also by other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind. Other energy sources include solar photovoltaics and [...] Centralised energy sources are large power plants that produce huge amounts of electricity to a large number of consumers. Most power plants used in centralised generation are thermal power plants meaning that they use a fuel to heat steam to produce a pressurised gas which in turn spins a turbine and generates electricity. This is the traditional way of producing energy. This process relies on several forms of technology to produce widespread electricity, these being natural coal, gas and

• Energy Production and Consumption - Our World in Data

  The availability of energy has transformed the course of humanity over the last few centuries. Not only have new sources of energy been unlocked — first fossil fuels, followed by diversification to nuclear, hydropower, and now other renewable technologies — but also in the quantity we can produce and consume. [...] The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. We will always indicate the original source of the data in our documentation, so you should always check the license of any such third-party data before use and redistribution. All of our charts can be embedded in any site. #### Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone. Help us do this work by making a donation. Donate now [...] Explore data on how energy production and use varies across the world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- By: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser This page was first published in July 2020. We made minor changes to the text in January 2024. Cite this articleReuse our work freely

• Electricity Mix - Our World in Data

  The stacked area chart shows electricity production in absolute terms, allowing you to see how these sources add up. The line chart shows each source's share of the total and gives a better perspective on how each changes over time. Globally, coal, followed by gas, is the largest source of electricity production. Of the low-carbon sources, hydropower and nuclear make the largest contribution; although wind and solar are growing quickly. [...] The chart below shows the percentage of global electricity production that comes from nuclear or renewable energy, such as solar, wind, hydropower, wind and tidal, and some biomass. Globally, more than a third of our electricity comes from low-carbon sources. However, the majority is still generated from fossil fuels, predominantly coal and gas. [...] Nearly all these countries have one thing in common: they get a lot of electricity from hydropower and/or nuclear energy. Solar, wind, and other renewable technologies are growing quickly. They will hopefully account for a large share of electricity production in the future — but the countries that have a low-carbon electricity mix today have relied heavily on hydroelectric and nuclear power in recent years.