Here’s a fun chart to stare at for long hours. It’s the LIvermore labs energy chart! This is the most recent version available at the state level (though there is one made at the national scale using 2017 info). It might look familiar, as Adam Miller put up a similar chart a year and a half ago for US data.
Anyhoo, this chart shows the input and output for all the energy used in the state of Minnesota. It’s full of interesting information.
Take a look (the units are in BTU, a measure of heat production):
Some highlights…
As Adam pointed out last time, “transportation is a particularly inefficient consumer of energy.” In this case, highlighted with the arrow, you can see that our petroleum-fueled transportation system is still responsible for a lot of wasted energy.
Also worth noting where energy comes from (e.g. coal, natural gas, wind) and where it goes. A lot of natural gas goes into heating homes, for example, filed here 8under the “residential” category.
Also, look how small solar is in this chart. How much has it grown since 2014? Some data shows it having grown twenty-fold since then.