Author Topic: Energy production in the United States fell by more than 5% in 2020  (Read 540 times)

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Offline thackney

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Energy production in the United States fell by more than 5% in 2020
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=47856
MAY 6, 2021



In 2020, energy production in the United States fell to just below 96 quadrillion British thermal units (quads), down more than 5% from 2019’s record high, according to our Monthly Energy Review. In absolute terms, the drop from 101.3 quads in 2019 to 95.8 quads in 2020 marked the largest annual decrease in U.S. energy production on record. Economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that began during the spring of 2020 drove most of this decrease.



To calculate U.S. energy production and to compare different types of energy reported in different physical units (such as barrels, cubic feet, tons, kilowatthours, etc.), we convert sources of energy to common units of heat, called British thermal units (Btu). We use a fossil fuel equivalence to calculate electricity consumption of noncombustible renewables such as wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal.

Between 2019 and 2020, U.S. coal production fell by 25% to less than 11 quads, its largest annual decrease on record. U.S. coal production in 2020 was less than half what it was at its peak in 1998 because natural gas and renewable sources increased their shares in the electricity generation mix over the years, displacing coal.

U.S. crude oil production fell by 8% in 2020 after reaching a record high in 2019. The sudden drop in petroleum demand in March 2020 as a result of the global response to COVID-19 led crude oil operators to decrease production.

Natural gas dry production in the United States increased in eight of the previous nine years and hit a record high in 2019. It decreased by 0.6 quads, or 2%, in 2020. Production of natural gas plant liquids, a byproduct of natural gas production, increased by 7% in 2020.

U.S. renewable energy production increased by 2% between 2019 and 2020 to a record-high 11.8 quads in 2020, primarily because of increased electricity generation from wind and solar. In 2019, U.S. renewable energy production surpassed U.S. coal production for the first time. Wind energy production increased by 14% in the United States to 3 quads, and U.S. solar energy production grew by 23% to 1.2 quads. U.S. hydroelectric and geothermal energy production stayed flat, while biomass production, including biofuels and wood, declined by 8%.
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Offline MajorClay

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Covid

Offline thackney

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Covid

Absolutely.  Most everything else was climbing up to that point.
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Offline jaymaron

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Trump is the energy president. Energy spike during the Trump era.

Solar and wind are growing at a feeble rate.

America has a good value for energy/carbon and China has a poor value. America can virtue signal.

The answer to the question of which energy source is best is: All of them! The more energy the better and the cheaper the better. The way to make energy cheap is to maximize production.

Energy begets wealth via

Energy -> Raw materials -> Manufactured goods -> Exports -> Wealth

There is a tight correlation between a nation's energy production and its wealth.

More energy has been lost to forest fires than has been gained from solar and wind.

Each energy source has a unique role. We need coal for metal smelting, natural gas for hydrogen production, and oil for motors.

Coal saved the trees. If it hadn't been for coal, we would have cut down every tree to power trains and smelt steel.

Geological oil saved the whales.

Fission reactors can produce numerous things of value besides the usual heat
and electricity. A reactor that harnesses these things would be hugely
profitable and people would want it built.  A nuclear reactor is a cash cow
that can drive cities and industry. A fission reactor can:

Produce electricity.
Produce heat for the chemical industry.
Heat buildings with discard heat.
Create valuable elements and isotopes by transmutation.
Extract valuable elements from spent fuel, such as rhodium and palladium.
Extract radioisotopes from spent fuel, which can be made into nuclear batteries.
   These include strontium-90 and caesium-137.
Serve as a neutron source for scientific research.
Neutralize radioactive waste with discard neutrons.

Over the past 10 years, platinum group elements jumped in value by a factor of 10, and fission waste has bigly rhodium and palladium. Fission waste is the new gold. Reactors can also create platinum group elements by transmutation (tungsten -> rhenium -> osmium -> iridium -> platinum -> gold).



Energy and mining: https://www.jaymaron.com/mining.html
Nuclear reactors: https://www.jaymaron.com/reactor.html
« Last Edit: May 26, 2021, 05:51:25 pm by jaymaron »

Offline thackney

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...Solar and wind are growing at a feeble rate...

What information do you use for that claim?





SHORT-TERM ENERGY OUTLOOK
Electricity
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/electricity.php
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