Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States

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Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States (2010)
National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
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. "Appendix F: Equivalences and Conversion Factors." Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2010.

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Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States

Table F.2 converts the energy use of cars, homes, and power plants to “primary energy” (also referred to as source energy). Thus, the primary energy associated with electricity production includes the energy burned at the power plant, not just the 30 percent delivered to the home.

Of the three conversion tables, Table F.2 would suffice for most purposes. As explained below, Tables F.3 and F.4 give slightly different conversions. Both cost to the customer and air pollution (nitrogen oxide [NO_x] and CO₂ emissions from combustion, as well as sulfur oxide [SO_x] emissions from coal combustion)

TABLE F.2 Energy Used Annually by a Typical Car and Home and Generated by a Typical 500 Megawatt Power Plant

	A Typical Annual Use (rounded)	B Conversion to Btu^a	C Annual Energy Use (Btu)^b	D Energy Use in Units of 1 Million Cars
Passenger cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, light trucks—U.S. stock (private and commercial): 247 million^c
1 typical car	500 gal^d	1 gal = 125,000 Btu	62.5 million	—
1 million typical cars	500 million gal	1 gal = 125,000 Btu	62.5 trillion	1
Homes—U.S. stock: 111 million^e
1 typical home (electricity + gas/oil)	200 million Btu	—	200 million	—
1 million typical homes	200 trillion Btu	—	200 trillion	3.2
Power plants—U.S. stock: 3,300 TWh^f ≡ 1,320 plants (½ GW)
Typical power plant (½ GW × 5,000 hours per year)	2.5 TWh	1 kWh = 10,500 Btu^g	26.2 trillion	0.4
^aSee http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/energy_conv.html. ^bFor metric units (e.g., kWh) the metric prefix is used; for Btu, the “value” multiplier is used, as shown in Table F.1, “Metric Prefixes.” ^cData from Table 1-11: Number of U.S. Aircraft, Vehicles, Vessels, and Other Conveyances, available at http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_11.html. ^dData from Table MF21 (for motor fuel use) and Table MV1 and MV9 (for private and commercial auto stock) in Highway Statistics 1998, available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/ohimstat.html. Table 1.10 for average annual miles in Monthly Energy Review, DOE/EIA-0035(2000-04), April 2000. ^eData from Residential Energy Consumption Survey, available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/. ^fData from Table 7.5 in Monthly Energy Review, DOE/EIA-0035(2000-04), April 2000. ^gSee Tables 2.6 and 7.5 in Monthly Energy Review, DOE/EIA-0035(2000-04), April 2000. In 1999, the U.S. electric grid consumed 34.5 quads of source energy to generate and sell 3,300 TWh of electricity. This yields a “heat rate” of 10,500 Btu/kWh.