Energy flow diagrams are useful for visualizing where energy comes from and where it goes. In this post, I will collect a number of diagrams for reference purposes (click on the image or the source for a clearer picture):
Source: US Energy Flow Trends(pdf), P. 2, 3U.S. Energy Flow, 2004
Source: DOE, Annual Energy Review 2004U.S. Petroleum Flow, 2004
Source: DOE, Annual Energy Review 2004U.S. Natural Gas Flow, 2004
Source: DOE, Annual Energy Review 2004U.S. Coal Flow, 2004
Source: DOE, Annual Energy Review 2004U.S. Electricity Flow, 2004
Source: DOE, Annual Energy Review 2004Energy Flow Diagram, Coal Liquefaction, Liquid Solvent Extraction (LSE) Process
Source: Technology Status Report: Coal Liquefaction(pdf), Department of Trade and Industry (UK)Material Flow in the U.S. Food System
SourceMore flow diagrams
3 Comments:
Do you expect people to bother looking at all those boring charts. Why don't you just tell us what they mean and we'll shoot you down.
Energy flow diagrams are useful for visualizing where energy comes from and where it goes. In this post, I will collect a number of diagrams for reference purposes
They're for future reference Dukat!
Shoot JD down? If you're such an enthusiastic doomer, run your own analysis on these objective statistics instead of waiting for an opportunity to use your doomer talking points...
Actually energy flow diagrams are the only sensible way to calculate energy efficiencies and even EROEI of various energy generation/transformation processes. Many of the EROIE studies on biofuels for example fail to take them into account (includes both negative and positive studies).
When such energy diagrams are used along with Life Cycle Models one gets a pretty accurate idea about the value of renewables (especially wind) and nuclear energy (the only sensible way to stop our carbon addiction for electricity generatio n while keeping the grids online)
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