Watt the hell??? Certainty indeed.

I was bored again. I get that way a lot. So I was leafing through an old copy of THE BOOK OF LISTS 2. Here is an interesting little piece. Sorry about the spacing.

20 Places Consuming The Most Energy (per capita. 1 unit = 10 kilowatts/hour – 1979)

1. US Virgin Islands 91,411

2. Wake Island 24,025

3. Qatar 23,658

4. Netherland Antilles 21,311

5. United Arab Emirates 18,548

6. Christmas Island 17,537

7. Luxembourg 14,724

8. Brunei 13,796

9. Panama Canal Zone 13,617

10. United States 11,374

11. Bahrain 10,302

12. Canada 9,930

13. New Caledonia 8,009

14. Czechoslovakia 7,531

15. Guam 7,477

16. Bahamas 7,354

17. East Germany 7,121

18. Nauru 7,006

19. Kuwait 6,771

20. Australia 6,622

(BOOK OF LISTS 2 p243 1980)

 

Ahh yes. I did say it was old. East Germany? Where is that again?

So where do we stand today?

20 Places Consuming The Most Energy

# 1	Iceland:	31,147.292 kWh per capita	2006
# 2	Norway:	24,011.233 kWh per capita	2006
# 3	Finland:	16,850.372 kWh per capita	2007
# 4	Canada:	16,279.411 kWh per capita	2006
# 5	Qatar:	15,938.943 kWh per capita	2006
# 6	Kuwait:	15,210.945 kWh per capita	2006
# 7	Sweden:	14,769.403 kWh per capita	2006
# 8	Luxembourg:	14,604.742 kWh per capita	2006
# 9	United States:	12,924.224 kWh per capita	2007
# 10	United Arab Emirates:	12,483.568 kWh per capita	2006
# 11	Bahrain:	11,819.586 kWh per capita	2006
# 12	Cayman Islands:	11,718.884 kWh per capita	2007
# 13	Australia:	10,720.756 kWh per capita	2006
# 14	Bermuda:	9,714.734 kWh per capita	2006
# 15	Guam:	9,682.897 kWh per capita	2006
# 16	Taiwan:	9,593.643 kWh per capita	2006
# 17	New Zealand:	9,436.716 kWh per capita	2006
# 18	Virgin Islands:	8,223.569 kWh per capita	2006
# 19	Singapore:	8,176.258 kWh per capita	2006
# 20	Belgium:	8,157.769 kWh per capita	2006

 

So what you say. We managed to increase consumption per head by 35%. Not bad there Australia! But there is another figure you need to be aware of. Population.

In 1979 Australia boasted a proud 14,602,481. In 2005 we had chalked up 20,090,437. Another 30% increase.

So not only did we increase population by 30%, we increased our individual usage by 35%.

And industry wants certainty before they move to renewable sources. Okay industry, be certain. If you build them, we will make you money.

Australia is addicted to electricity. And loving it.

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A. Ghebranious    2011     (All Rights Reserved)