Global Energy Consumption & Energy Demand in Electricity and Transportation

global energy demand
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next 50 years. However, we expect to see significant differences between the last 50 years and the next. The past increase was stimulated by relatively “cheap” fossil fuels and increased rates of industrialization in North America, Europe, and Japan; yet while energy consumption in these countries continues to increase, additional factors are making the picture for the next 50 years more complex. These additional complicating factors include the very rapid increase fuel economy in energy use in China and India (countries representing about a third of the world’s population); the expected depletion of oil resources in the not-too-distant future; and the effect of human activities on global climate change. (more…)

The Japanese Photovoltaic Program

Japan has the largest Photovoltaic installed capacity in the world as a result of the sustained investments made by the country through carefully coordinated Photovoltaic R&D and deployment, leading to a ‘‘virtuous cycle’’ among R&D, market growth, and price reduction. By the end of 2000, the total installed capacity in the country was 317 MW, of which on-grid distributed generation accounted for more than 252 MW. In 2000, Japan produced 128 MW of PV cells and 136 MW of modules, both of which were well over half of the global production. (more…)