Power to the People by Warde Paul Malanima Paolo Kander Astrid

Author:Warde, Paul, Malanima, Paolo, Kander, Astrid
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

ENERGY SAVING VERSUS ENERGY EXPANSION

Modern energy history has been a battle of countervailing pressures. Ever since the first power machinery was invented, people have sought to get more out for less input. The efficiency gains over time have often been spectacular, and so have the energy savings. Yet the fossil fuel economy also made a vast stock of energy available to society at a relatively cheap price. At the same time, new power technology has opened new possibilities and a great range of new activities. These two forces combined have promoted the expansion of energy use. The overall balance sheet of the energy economy, the end result by which energy consumption rises or falls, can be imagined as the outcome of the race between saving and expansion.

Different economic activities have, of course, very different energy intensities. Heat-intensive processes, such as smelting in furnaces, are far more demanding of energy than those using fuel simply as a source of motive power, especially as more efficient steam engine technology was developed. In turn, branches such as retail premises that only consume fuel to provide some warmth and light put even fewer demands on energy supply. Thus the structure of the economy will affect its capital and energy intensity.

We can now flesh out this analysis. Table 7.7 shows the energy intensity of various activities in the British economy around 1870. The most voracious consumers of energy were the chemical industry and the utilities. They were only a small proportion of national income—no more than 2 percent in 1870—but nevertheless key aspects of modern life in the provision of industrial raw material, light, clean water, and power. Next was iron. Collieries themselves were very energy-intense. It might seem trivial to say that to produce a lot of coal you need a lot of coal, but of course it is not: this is a condition of having an elastic supply of energy in the economy more generally, and thus was a great advantage to Britain, Germany, and Belgium. Energy extraction is energy-intense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.