GEO4B Energy Issues 2016

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GEO4B – Prep

a) Summarise, referring to the graphs and other items:

1. The 2012 UK breakdown of energy consumption.

We consume far less energy in 2012 than in the 1970s as energy production and consumption has become far more efficient.  The major sectors employing people in the UK are tertiary and quaternary rather than secondary as it was in 1970s so there are far less large factories consuming large amounts of energy. Also the service industry has found that reducing energy consumption is a simple cost cutter. Manufacturing industry and households use less energy but there has been a 50% rise in the transport sector due to an increase in cars on the road and the number of flights.

2. Trends in energy consumption up to 2012 (last date which is not a projection)

Overall, energy consumption was on a steady increase from the early 1980s due to the advances in technology making it more helpful for everyday life and more accessible for more people; use of the private car increased and people travelled more. After 2005 energy consumption has been decreasing as despite the fact our population is still increasing we are more efficient with energy consumption; with everyone more aware of how much they use and lots of technology such as apps out there to help keep track.  The individual types of energy each follow a different trend. Coal has been declining since 1970 till it is almost never consumed. Electricity has stayed pretty steady along with petroleum; natural gas on the other hand became suddenly very popular in the 1980s and has stayed a larger portion of energy consumption since. In 2010 Bioenergy and waste started to be used and has grown slightly in the short period of time it has been here.

3. Future Projections

From 2012 the decreasing trend seems to continue is less drastic and more steadily. This is because energy efficiencies are continuing to become more popular and lots of research is going into this area, which should offset the population growth still occurring. Just before 2030 after 2025 there seems to be a slight rise again but this still leads to 2030 having lower energy consumption than 2012. Coal, petroleum, natural gas and electricity all seem to stay pretty constant in the future with a general overall decline as described earlier; but bioenergy and waste are now part of the portion used and seem to increase slightly or at least staying constant.

4. The 2012 breakdown of sources of electricity

In 2012 there are many different sources of electricity. The most popular sources are nuclear, natural gas and coal; the fact that coal has high production and low consumption shows how inefficient and unpopular it is whereas nuclear is increasing in popularity lately although its future is uncertain and some people still have reservations. Renewables such as hydroelectric and wind are barely seen on the graph of sources possibly due to a lack of research resulting in them being inefficient and

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Greeny128

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brilliant resource! Thanks!