World primary energy consumption in 2002

In this brief overview, the world consumption of primary energy-- oil, gas, coal, hydro and nuclear-- is summarized in a Table based on the 2002 data of British Petrol, which provides basic data on a year-by-year basis. The Table comprises the above-cited commercially traded fuels only, excluding other fuel sources such as solar, wind, wood, peat or animal waste, which are important fuel sources in many countries, but are unreliably documented in terms of consumption statistics. The most recent developments are mentioned in the application of the challenging fuel of the future- hydrogen. In the Figure the "energy units "- eV, Joules, kilocalories, Watt-hours, tons of TNT, and mass of meter converted to energy by E = MC2- are displayed in logarithmic scale and the most important conversion factors are also illustrated. 2002 in review World consumption of primary energy increased by 2.6 % in 2002, well ahead of the 10-year growth trend of 1.4 % per annum. Reported growth in energy demand of almost 20 % in China was behind much of this relative strength: energy consumption in the world, excluding China, grew by less than 1 % during the year, reflecting a second year of below-trend economic growth