1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2012
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/05/2012
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Statistics contained in the Year Book are the most recent available at the time of preparation. In many cases, the ABS website and the websites of other organisations provide access to more recent data. Each Year Book table or graph and the bibliography at the end of each chapter provides hyperlinks to the most up to date data release where available.
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INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
PER CAPITA ENERGY CONSUMPTION
Countries around the world are striving for increased progress and economic development. However, development relies heavily on the increased provision and use of energy products and services. While energy consumption may have become more efficient, total energy consumption and energy consumption per capita continue to grow in developed countries. In developing countries, even more rapid growth can be expected as their per capita income increases. Therefore, accurate measures and comparisons of energy consumption are required to understand the role of energy in driving economic development.
Total primary energy supply (TPES) figures are commonly used to represent intermediate and final consumption of energy in an economy. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA):
TPES = production + imports – exports – international marine bunkers – international aviation bunkers + stock changes
Table 19.15 shows TPES as tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per capita and per GDP (energy intensity ratio) for a number of OECD countries and other countries. It should be noted that these figures can be misleading indicators for cross-country comparisons because countries exhibit a range of climates, industrial structures, geographical features and economic development traits. Therefore, careful analysis should also involve the breakdown of these figures to identify individual factors such as changes to the level of economic activity (production effect), the composition of the economy (structural effect), and the energy intensity of energy-using sectors (real intensity effect).
Australia's TPES is valued at 5.93 toe per capita, above the OECD total of 4.28 toe per capita, and well above the world total of 1.80 toe per capita. In contrast, Australia's energy intensity ratio is on par with the world total of 0.19 toe per GDP and also above the OECD total (0.16 toe per GDP). Typically, developed countries supply and consume more energy per capita compared to their less developed counterparts and Australia's energy supply is one of the highest in the world. This may be partially due to Australia's propensity to extract its abundant, low-cost energy resources, especially coal and gas, and partially due to the energy intensive nature of Australia's exports. Australian manufacturing is energy intensive (in 2009–10, the manufacturing industry accounted for over one-third of Australia net energy use by industry). In particular, energy use for the production of non-ferrous metals (aluminium refining and aluminium smelting) increased dramatically as Australia captured a larger share of the global market. Net energy use in the non-ferrous metal sector accounted for 35% of the energy use by the manufacturing industries in 2009–10.
(b) toe: tonnes of oil equivalent.
(c) Referenced to year 2000 US dollar exchange rate; PPP: purchasing power parity.
Source: International Energy Agency (IEA), Key World Energy Statistics 2011, Oct 2011.
CONTRIBUTION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
The contribution of renewable energy to total primary energy supply varies widely between countries. This reflects both their level of development and the availability of natural resources used to produce renewable energy, especially water, biomass and geothermal energy. Countries with abundant water supplies and suitable topography, such as Norway, Sweden and New Zealand, have high shares of renewables, dominated by hydro-electricity. Iceland has the highest share of renewables, attributable to its abundant geothermal energy sources.
Australia's contribution of renewable energy for 2010 was relatively low at 5.2%, compared with 7.6% for the OECD country total. It has historically been dominated by biomass (bagasse and wood) and hydro-electricity (the generation of which varies between years according to river inflows). In more recent years, the use of wind to generate electricity, and solar to generate electricity and heat, have increased.
Under-developed and developing countries often have a greater reliance on certain types of renewables (e.g. traditional biomass such as wood used for home cooking/heating) than developed countries.
Table 19.16 compares the contribution of renewable energy to TPES for a number of OECD and other countries.
(a) Total primary energy supply (TPES) = production + imports – exports – international marine bunkers – international aviation bunkers + stock changes.