The United States accounts for 15% of the world’s total energy consumption, despite being home to only 4% of the world’s population. It is critically important to understand and address opportunities in our use of energy if we want to decarbonize the world.
The data used throughout this entire post is from Our World in Data. Detailed information about their sources is available here. As of the time of writing, the most recent yearly data is from 2023.
Energy Consumption
In this discussion I’ll focus first on primary energy consumption. The most important thing to know is that we are looking at energy consumption for any purpose; including energy used as fuel for transportation, energy converted into electricity, and anything in between. You can think of it as tracking the raw inputs into our energy ecosystem.
Let’s start with some historical context. The last 50 years have seen the expansion of both nuclear energy and renewable sources of energy (solar, wind, hydro, and more). But it’s undeniable that fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) still dominate our lives.
Oil is still the dominant energy source in the country, followed by natural gas. Reducing dependence on coal and supplementing the loss with nuclear and renewables is a big success story in recent history. That being said, other countries have shown that much more dramatic progress is possible on that front, such as the 2024 closing of the last coal power plant in the United Kingdom.
| Energy Source | 1970 Share | 2023 Share |
|---|---|---|
| Oil | 44.9% | 38.0% |
| Natural Gas | 31.6% | 33.8% |
| Coal | 18.8% | 8.7% |
| Renewables | 4.4% | 11.7% |
| Nuclear | 0.4% | 7.8% |
Although the vast majority of energy still comes from fossil fuels, we can see that total fossil fuel usage peaked in 2007 and has been decreasing ever since.
Consumption Per Person
The transition from fossil fuels to renewables becomes even more clear after adjusting for population growth. In fact, fossil fuel usage per person has actually been decreasing since the 70’s! Nuclear filled the gap for a while until, starting around 2000, renewables began to take off. Notice the different scales on the left and right axes: despite the growth, an order of magnitude seperates us from living in a renewables-dominant world.
Renewables on the Rise
Goals remain far off on the horizon but make no mistake: progress is being made. Renewable energy use increased by over 150% in the first two decades of the 21st century, and signs point to growth.
Electricity
It’s important to remember that so far we have been talking about energy consumption for any purpose, but we don’t utilize each source equally across sectors. The growth in biofuels is primarily driven by its use in the transportation sector, for example. To truly appreciate the growth in renewables, it is helpful to briefly zoom in on electricity generation, where renewable energy shines.
Widespread solar power was just a dream in 2000, and now it accounts for over 5% of total electricity generation and climbing. Wind power has seen similar dramatic growth, now accounting for around 10% of generation. All in all, over 20% of our electricity comes from renewable sources.
But it’s not enough. 59% of our electricity in 2023 was generated from fossil fuels.
How We Stack Up
Returning to the topic of primary energy consumption, let’s take a look at how the United States compares to other top economies (in terms of GDP) when it comes to energy use.
China currently consumes more energy than any other country. Their fossil fuel usage is much more than our total, but they are also the largest consumers of renewable energy. China is considered a global leader on that front, with 30% of their electricity generated from renewable sources.
Once again, total consumption is not the whole story and adjusting for population provides a useful perspective. It probably shouldn’t be surprising that China consumes more energy than the U.S. when we consider that China has 4 times the population! Indeed, the U.S. comes out on top of China in terms of energy use per person, and it’s not close. Even just our fossil fuel consumption per capita dwarfs the totals of these other countries.
Progress is being made, but we have a long, long way to go.