Have you ever wondered how much energy we consume indirectly in our lifespan? I think you might be surprised by the answer.
The following data was calculated for a human life in an industrialized country with a lifespan of 80 years.
But how much is that?
Most of us can probably not estimate what 1 kWh means. Let me help you. One kilowatt is a unit used for energy usage, so one kilowatt-hour is used by a device that uses one kilowatt per hour. Your usual dishwasher uses around 1 kWh for a washing procedure. The total of the shown data above is 4'800'000'000 kWh, which results in nearly 5 GWh. A short fun fact: All the resources needed result in a weight of 1'000 tons, which is 250 elephants.
The extractive industry uses more energy than all the air traffic around the world, namely about 3% of annual global energy production. These 4.8 GWh are created by embodied energy. This includes all the energy that a product or service has "embodied" during its lifespan. Within this calculation is the extraction, selling, manufacturing, dumping, and steps in between. To reach this amount of energy, the Letten hydropower station in Zürich, for example, would have to produce electricity for 77 days – this corresponds to 2.5 months of street lighting for the whole city.
What can we change about it?
That is where it gets complicated. To change something is very hard. This embodied energy is not something we can reduce by not consuming something or by avoiding any particular habits. This energy has to be saved by technology. The improvements in producing or extracting resources are massive. There is a lot of room to improve on. I am sure as technology and production advance soon, we will be able to get those numbers lower.
Quiz
What is meant by the term "embodied energy"?
Answer 1
Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services.
Answer 2
Embodied energy describes all the energy that is lost within the production of any goods.
Answer 3
Embodied energy is “filthy” energy produced by coal or nuclear power plants for example. It is a reason for our environmental pollution.
This post was written by Kolja Schenker and Michael Stutz.
Source:
Presentation focusTerra (sway.office.com)