Reply #126: Short and sweet, here are the numbers

[kristopher]

For once I don't think you are just being negative; this is genuinely a confusing area; so here you go.

Worldwide energy consumption in 2008 was 474EJ.
One EJ = 277.7Twh.**
The amount of electricity generated by nuclear in 2008 was 2658 Twh.

This is easy for you to confirm with some back of the envelope numbers:
The 439 global reactors have a total capacity of 372Gwe.
Assuming a slightly high global capacity factor of 80% that gives us average continuous generation of 298GW.
Multiply that by the 8760 hours in a year for 2611Twh.
So, based on the installed capacity and the average global capacity factor we see that the 2611Twh number is very close to the 2658Twh number I gave you.

2658Twh = 9.57EJ

World energy consumption in 2008 was 474EJ.

9.57/474 = 2%


Now, about how the numbers are recorded.

First you need to know that primary energy consumption and end user consumption are not the same thing. Primary energy consumption is calculated at the national level by taking the fuels consumed and deriving their energy content from the unit mass of the fuels used. It isn't a record of every retail energy transaction that occurs around the world.

The practice is to choose a "primary energy unit" for each source and use that as a basis of comparison across different sources.

The International Energy Agency makes comparisons by measuring the heat content of all the energy commodities in metric tons of oil equivalent - TOE.

A TOE = 0.012 Gwh

When nuclear is measured both electricity and heat are converted to units of heat and then converted to TOE.

For hydro, wind, wave and photovoltaic solar electricity production, total electricity is the primary form of energy and it is converted to heat.

So as you can see, my assertion was correct.

**How many terawatthour in 1 exajoule? The answer is 277.777777778.
http://www.convertunits.com/from/terawatthour/to/exajou...