, Columnist
How Renewables Lead to a World of Peak Energy
Wind, solar and hydro power mean overall demand could eventually fall.
A bright future?
Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
It can be hard to get your head around just how much energy the world uses. Expressed in terms of oil, it was equivalent to almost 14 billion metric tons of the stuff in 2017. That’s like burning through all of Russia’s proved reserves in the space of 12 months, which is, in technical terms, a lot.
But there’s an even trickier issue to ponder: What does it even mean to “use” energy? Granted, that sounds like something you might hear from a stoner at the engineering faculty. But it’s an increasingly important question as renewable energy and electrification expand.