SPECTRA ENERGY

Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy

Introduction

The Industrial Revolution that Adam Smith and Karl Marx came to grips with is the use of machinery with some power source to augment muscle power. The term energy is a brief way of describing that power. The source can be what scholars and policy makers refer to as either primary or secondary energy. Primary energy refers to natural resources that can be used to provide energy, including human and animal power, wood and other combustible plants, water, wind, coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear fission or fusion. Secondary energy refers to an energy source that requires conversion of a primary energy source. The most common form of secondary energy in the modern economy is electricity obtained from the use of fossil or nuclear fuels in a generating plant. The central steam heating plant of a university or hospital complex and the cogeneration by-product steam from a generating plant are also secondary energy sources.

Changing Fuel Sources

The first source of primary energy other than human, animal, or waterpower was wood. In the United States, coal emerged as a domestic source around 1850. It was the single largest source of power, providing approximately 20 quadrillion Btu (quads), equal to 21 trillion megajoules, per year from 1910 through World War II. Petroleum emerged around 1900 and overtook coal in 1947. Current petroleum consumption is around 40 quads (42 trillion megajoules). Natural gas emerged as a source at about the same time and followed a similar growth curve, rising by around 1970 to 30 quads. Coal was not eclipsed by these new fuels. Current coal use is about 25 quads (U.S. Energy Information Administration ).

For 2007, the fossil fuels constitute 86.2 quads of primary energy used in the United States, comprising 22.8 quads from coal, 23.6 quads from natural gas, and 39.8 quads from petroleum. An additional 8.4 quads originate as nuclear electric power, with 6.8 quads provided by what the EIA (2008) classifies as renewable energy, aggregating “conventional hydroelectric power, biomass, geothermal, solar/photovoltaic, and wind.” Annual energy consumption was 101.6 quads, of which industrial users consumed 32.3 quads, transportation 29.1, commercial enterprises 18.4, and residences 21.8 .

Energy Intensity Diminishes

Although industrialization means an increase in an economy's use of energy, the intensity with which an economy uses its energy tends to diminish. For instance, Natural Resources Canada (2009) reports that the aggregate energy intensity of Canadian industry was 13,000 Btu (13.6 megajoules) per 1997 dollar of gross domestic product in 1990, which falls to 11,000 Btu (11.3 megajoules) per 1997 dollar in 2006.

Declining energy intensity of industries and of entire economies is characteristic of most industries in most countries, although readers will see that energy prices or attempts to achieve greater energy efficiency are not necessarily driving these changes.

Na Liu and B. W. Ang (2007) evaluate the research on energy intensity in a paper that, although not explicitly a survey, includes references to numerous other surveys of the evidence. The most common outcome researchers identify is reduced energy intensity over time, accounted ...