An overview of sectoral energy consumption in the UK: past, present and future

The rapidly growing energy consumption worldwide again reveals the crucial points for the world such as exhaustion of energy sources, ozone layer depletion, global warming and climate change. The recent reports by International Energy Agency (IEA) on energy consumption trends are also not promising. Primary energy consumption has increased by 49% and CO2 emissions by 43% during the last two decades, and the predictions indicate that the growing trend will continue as a consequence of the notable growth in world population. Energy consumption rate differs from country to country depending on its social, cultural and especially economic conditions. Nations with developing economies (South America, Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia) have an average annual energy consumption rate of 3.2%, whereas the rate is 1.1% for most of the developed economies (North America, Japan, Australia and Western Europe). In this paper, overall energy consumption in the UK by sector is evaluated from 1973 oil crisis to the present. The scope is split into four sectors as transport, domestic, industrial and services sector and the results for each are presented in a comparable way. Percentage of total primary energy consumption and final energy consumption by fuel type are presented. Several factors affecting the overall energy consumption are also investigated.