The National Academies
What You Need To Know About Energy
How We Use Energy
We divide our energy use among four economic sectors: residential, commercial, transportation, and industrial. Heating and cooling our homes, lighting office buildings, driving cars and moving freight, and manufacturing the products we rely on in our daily lives are all functions that require energy. If projections are correct, we’re going to keep needing more. In the United States alone, energy consumption is expected to rise 13% over the next two decades. Global consumption is expected to increase by 44% over the same time period.
Percentage of energy consumed by each economic sector in the United States in 2008.
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Energy Hands-on
Understanding Efficiency
Learn the significance of energy efficiencyOur Energy System
A visualization of all our energy sourcesWhat do you know about energy?
The consumption of energy worldwide is projected to rise by how much between 2006 and 2030?
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Worldwide consumption of energy sources is projected to rise by nearly 50% between 2006 and 2030.
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Correct!
Worldwide consumption of energy sources is projected to rise by nearly 50% between 2006 and 2030.
-
Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Worldwide consumption of energy sources is projected to rise by nearly 50% between 2006 and 2030.
Energy Defined
- Sustainability
Sustaining the supply of energy and materials needed to support current levels of consumption, making them available where most needed, and addressing the environmental problems resulting from their extraction, consumption, and disposal.
National Academies Press
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Source Material
- Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States (2010)
- Electricity from Renewable Resources: Status, Prospects, and Impediments (2009)
- Liquid Transportation Fuels from Coal and Biomass: Technological Status, Costs, and Environmental Impacts (2009)
- Effectiveness and Impact of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards (2002)
- Partnerships for Solid-State Lighting: Report of a Workshop (2002)
- Review of the Research Program of the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership: First Report (2005)
- Decreasing Energy Intensity in Manufacturing: Assessing the Strategies and Future Directions of the Industrial Energy Technologies Program (2005)
