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atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 04.2019

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<strong>atw</strong> Vol. 64 (2019) | Issue 4 ı April<br />

Feature | Major Trends in Energy Policy and <strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Power</strong><br />

The Role of Resources and Reserves<br />

<strong>for</strong> the Global Energy Supply<br />

Hans-Wilhelm Schiffer<br />

The assured availability and competitiveness of the various energy sources, as well as climate compatibility, determine<br />

their use. Conditions on the energy markets are also subject to continuous change. This article examines the extent to<br />

which the availability of energy resources and the orientation of energy policies influence the energy mix, particularly<br />

power generation. It also outlines strategies <strong>for</strong> achieving the energy policy goals – security of supply, value <strong>for</strong> money<br />

and environmental compatibility (including climate protection) – in the best possible way.<br />

Changes in the global energy mix since 1985<br />

Global energy consumption has almost doubled since the<br />

mid 1980s. Fossil fuels, i.e. oil, natural gas and coal, have<br />

covered 80 % of this growth. Thus, the share of fossil fuels<br />

in the coverage of total primary energy consumption has<br />

decreased only slightly, from 89 % in 1985 to 85 % in 2017.<br />

Although renewable energies have gained massively in<br />

importance, especially in the last ten years, the contribution<br />

of hydropower, wind and solar energy, biomass<br />

and geothermal energy was still limited to a total of<br />

11 % even in 2017. In 2017, nuclear power covered 4 %<br />

of primary energy consumption (Figure 1).<br />

The transport sector and the petrochemical industry<br />

are the main users of oil. Natural gas is used primarily in<br />

the heating market, by industry, private households and<br />

small consumers, and additionally in power generation.<br />

Coal is used predominantly and nuclear power exclusively<br />

<strong>for</strong> power generation. To date, the renewable energies<br />

have also been used preferably <strong>for</strong> power generation.<br />

This applies to hydropower but also to solar energy and<br />

wind power and, albeit to a lesser extent, to biomass and<br />

geothermal energy.<br />

Global power generation has almost tripled since 1985.<br />

Two thirds of the growth achieved since then has been covered<br />

by coal and natural gas. At 38 %, coal’s share of global<br />

power generation in 2017 was exactly the same as in 1985.<br />

It is true that oil’s contribution to power generation has<br />

dropped by eight percentage points, but this was more<br />

than offset by a nine percentage point increase in the share<br />

of natural gas. Accordingly, there was no significant<br />

change in fossil fuel’s share in power generation between<br />

1985 and 2017. It was 65 % in 2017 and also in 2000 compared<br />

to 64 % in 1985. From 1985 to 2017, the share of<br />

nuclear power decreased by five percentage points to 10 %,<br />

while the contribution of renewables increased by four<br />

percentage points to 25 %. The strongest growth was in<br />

solar and wind, particularly in the last ten years. Despite<br />

absolute growth, the share of hydropower has fallen by<br />

four percentage points since 1985. Nevertheless, hydropower<br />

continues to make the greatest contribution to<br />

power generation among the renewable energies in 2017<br />

(Figure 2).<br />

| | Fig. 1.<br />

Worldwide primary energy consumption 1985 to 2017 in million (10 6 ) tce.<br />

| | Fig. 2.<br />

Worldwide mix in electricity generation 1985 to 2017 in TWh (terawatt hours = 10 12 watt hours).<br />

FEATURE | MAJOR TRENDS IN ENERGY POLICY AND NUCLEAR POWER 191<br />

Determining factors <strong>for</strong> the energy mix<br />

in power generation by country<br />

The energy mix of power generation in the various<br />

countries and regions of the world is very different from<br />

the global structures described above. There are two<br />

crucial factors <strong>for</strong> this: the resource situation in each case<br />

and the orientation of the energy policy. This becomes<br />

clear in an exemplary examination of the situation in<br />

selected countries (Figure 3).<br />

| | Fig. 3.<br />

Mix in electricity generation of selected countries in 2017 in %.<br />

Feature<br />

The Role of Resources and Reserves <strong>for</strong> the Global Energy Supply ı Hans-Wilhelm Schiffer

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