UK energy use overview

Here are just a few charts to help set the scene for how we use energy in the UK. All data is for 2010.

Although electricity accounts for only a fifth of our energy use, it is responsible for much more in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Per kWh, electricity generates twice as much GHGs as oil and nearly 3 times as much as gas.

Domestic energy use and transport are each about 1/3 of our energy use. However nearly half of transport is private cars and taxis so we are personally directly responsible for about half our energy use.

2010 was a very cold year and space heating is not always quite such a high proportion of our energy use. In 2011 it was only 60% - still by far the largest use.

For more facts and figures, see Useful Numbers on my website - or read my book.

Data sources:

Digest UK Energy Statistics (DECC)
Energy Consumption in the UK (all data tables) (DECC)