HOME > ENERGY > POWER EFFICIENCY
Energy efficiency of different types of energy
Here is a table that shows which energies have the best ratios:
Sources: IEA, OECD, Lazard, OpenEI, NEI, BEIS, Energy White Paper, Bloomberg, SI Ocean, BP, EIU, REN21, WEC, WEO, associations and energy professionals. This is a global average. These are the most recent data at the time of the article.
| Energy efficiency of different types of energy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | Average foad factor | Average efficiency | Power capacity GW (world) | Yearly production TWh (world) | Yearly production Mtoe (world) | Pollution CO2 g/kWh | Cost USD/MWh | Installation lifetime (years) |
| Nuclear WPR | 80% | 50% | 6,4 | - | - | 9,0 | 97,4 | 60 |
| Nuclear | 80% | 33% | 392,5 | 2617,0 | 681,0 | 17,7 | 122,2 | 40 |
| Ultra-supercritical coal | 80% | 43% | 127,0 | 450,0 | - | 776,3 | 147,4 | 60 |
| Supercritical coal | 71% | 44% | 133,0 | 2250,0 | - | 841,5 | 160,1 | 60 |
| Geothermal | 68% | 12% | 13,8 | 80,4 | 74,7 | 41,5 | 43,6 | 17,5 |
| Diesel | 65% | 42% | - | - | - | 625,0 | 104,4 | 19 |
| Waste to energy | 65% | 27,5% | 12,9 | 94,1 | - | 570,6 | 111,4 | 50 |
| Lignite | 63% | 43% | 146,3 | - | - | 1015,6 | 54,9 | 50 |
| Plasma burner | 60% | 37,5% | 0,011 | - | - | 149,0 | 148,5 | - |
| Biomass wood | 60% | 25% | 112,0 | 504,0 | 1354,0 | 92,0 | 99,9 | 30 |
| Hydraulic run off river | 59% | 75% | - | - | - | 13,0 | 105,8 | 40 |
| Coal | 57% | 35% | 1951,0 | 9538,3 | 3732,0 | 880,5 | 85,5 | 50 |
| Thermal flame | 55% | 47% | 4001,1 | 22076,5 | 13498,7 | 432,3 | 106,2 | 30 |
| Propane | 50% | 85% | - | - | - | 247,3 | 120,7 | 11 |
| Water mill | 50% | 41% | - | - | - | 13,0 | 53,4 | 40 |
| Hydrogen fuel cell | 48% | 55% | - | - | - | 330,8 | 137,6 | 15 |
| Fossil fuel | 48% | 50% | 3465,5 | 18771,4 | 11353,3 | 551,6 | 103,3 | 29 |
| Natural gas | 44% | 58% | 901,3 | 5543,3 | 3204,1 | 510,6 | 58,3 | 30 |
| Combined cycle gas | 43% | 58% | 108,7 | - | - | 388,7 | 56,9 | 30 |
| Hydraulic | 42% | 77% | 1245,0 | 4023,0 | 910,3 | 13,0 | 66,5 | 50 |
| Hydraulique small | 39% | 75% | - | - | - | 12,5 | 105,8 | 30 |
| Renewable energies | 39% | 41% | 2661,2 | 6136,5 | 2662,9 | 105,9 | 138,6 | 33 |
| Offshore wind | 34% | 25% | 14,4 | 40,6 | - | 10,5 | 159,3 | 15 |
| Hydraulic water reservoir | 25% | 82% | - | - | - | 13,0 | 66,5 | 100 |
| Solar water thermal | 25% | 80% | 456,0 | 9,4 | - | 17,5 | 181,7 | 20 |
| Marine current | 25% | 45% | - | - | - | 13,5 | 396,8 | 25 |
| Marine tidal | 25% | 65% | 0,5 | 1,0 | - | 17,0 | 496,5 | 100 |
| Concentrating solar | 23,5% | 85% | 4,8 | 2,0 | - | 27,0 | 219,2 | 32,5 |
| Onshore wind | 20% | 20% | 487,0 | 959,0 | 159,8 | 11,0 | 55,9 | 25 |
| Marine wave | 20% | 10% | 0,01 | - | - | 17,0 | 475,3 | 30 |
| Solar | 10% | 14,5% | 763,8 | 342,4 | 54,7 | 34,0 | 116,5 | 25 |
| Solar photovoltaic | 10% | 11,5% | 303,0 | 333,0 | - | 57,5 | 77,6 | 25 |
| Oil | 6% | 38% | 98,2 | 989,8 | 4418,2 | 735,5 | 124,7 | 4 |
| Domestic fuel oil | 5% | 35% | - | - | - | 487,3 | 77,8 | 25 |
| Wood trigeneration | - | 85% | 0,0085 | - | - | 428,0 | 69,8 | 30 |
| Microturbine | - | 80% | - | - | - | 720,0 | 101,3 | 25 |
| Butane | - | 80% | - | - | - | 235,6 | 243,1 | 11 |
| Heavy fuel oil | - | 50% | - | - | - | 414,8 | 43,6 | 20 |
| Bioethanol | - | 39,5% | 1,8 | 7,6 | 78,4 | 179,6 | 112,3 | 18 |
| Gasoline | - | 36% | - | - | - | 506,6 | 97,6 | 21 |
| Biomethane | - | 30% | 10,0 | 82,4 | 31,0 | 198,0 | 101,0 | 17,5 |
| Liquefied petroleum gas | - | 27% | - | - | - | 231,0 | 73,2 | 22 |
| Piezoelectric | - | 17,5% | - | - | - | - | - | 5 |
| Marine thermal | - | 3% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Micro-algae | - | 3% | - | - | - | 11,0 | 239,5 | - |
| Coal capture and storage | - | - | - | - | - | 208,5 | - | - |
The annual production in TWh includes only electrical production, not thermal production.
Load factor is the ratio between the average power and the theoretical maximum power. This is continuously optimized over time.
Efficiency: energy efficiency is the ratio between the actual efficiency of a machine and the theoretical efficiency. It also evolves over time.
Coal capture and storage: it is a question of trapping CO2 with one of these 3 methods: afterburning, oxycombustion or precombustion. None of them has a particular advantage. For the moment, green coal or clean coal is in the testing phase; major projects are under consideration.
Osmotic energy: conversion of freshwater to seawater. Also called energy of salinity gradients. Removed from the picture, there are several projects underway around the world.
Thermal tidal: thermodynamic machine which exploit the high thermal differences in the oceans and seas.
Thermodynamic solar: concentrated thermal solar.
Wood trigeneration: biomass wood power plant generating heat, electricity and cold.
Tidal tidal wave: it can be a tidal barrage, so the installation site must be favorable, which is not often the case. We put in place reversible bulbs, kinds of large turbines that work in both directions. The other possibility is the tidal factory with artificial lagoons.
Tidal currents: we use a tidal turbine to capture the energy of ocean currents. With horizontal or vertical axis.
Swell tidal wave: it is a question of hogeneration. There are several revolutionary systems, such as the Wave Dragon system, me Limpet onshore. The Emec point absorber, attenuator, submersible converter oscillating horizontal, oscillating vertical. The Pelamis system (ocean power delivery), the Searev direct wave generator with direct conversion chain.
At sea
The problem of all systems at sea is that the devices can degrade quickly, with corrosion, it is necessary to regularly change parts, or remove algae, floating waste. This requires a lot of maintenance.
Microalgae
Progress is being made in micro-algae, a photoenzyme should soon increase their energy efficiency by allowing them to produce hydrocarbons.
Plasma torch
The gasification with plasma torch of Europlasma could reach 48% in terms of energy efficiency soon thanks to the use of a new generation combined cycle turbine. The plasma torch could replace the usual waste incineration process. For the moment, its energy needs for electricity greatly affect its performance.
There are several ideas for projects that have not yet been exploited, such as a piezoelectric extendable wind sail, a marine tarp or an underwater canvas of piezoelectric buoys. Windmills and water mills in carbon fiber, graphene, or micro-lattice.
Energies not present
We could have added biofuels based on rapeseed ester, corn, soy biodiesel, cellulose ethanol, beet ethanol. The shale gas. The water mill, the traction mill. Vertical wind turbine, flying wind turbine, wind tree (idea abandoned), giant sail for container ships, flying turbine, giant kite, helium balloon, Saphonian wind turbine, wind turbine without blades (bladeless vortex), the vibrating wire, the flag, the Venturi, the simple solar tower, the osmotic energy (reaction fresh water / salt water), the oceanic biomass. Nuclear with ITER. The solar sail in space. The giant solar dishes. Aerothermal energy, aquathermy with the heat pump. Air compression.
Some are still theoretical such as magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), magnetized targeted fusion (General Fusion), nuclear fusion of the stellarator type (Wendelstein Stellarator).
Pollution
It includes that emitted by the construction, production and destruction of the installation. We could have taken into account the emission of NOx, SO2, CO, PM, HC.
Other information
Fuel oil is the other name for fuel oil. LPG, liquefied petroleum gas is mainly composed of natural gas (60%) then light hydrocarbons in liquid form (40%). The name Diesel refers to diesel. The piezoelectric has not been able to break through, for the moment this technology is too heavy in terms of maintenance and it can deteriorate rapidly.
Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above.
This page contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. For an explanation of our advertising policy, please visit this page.
Related posts:
Energy capacity of the different energies in GW
https://w3ask.com/energy-capacity-energies-gw/
https://w3ask.com/energy-capacity-energies-gw/
Here is the list of different energies ranked by capacity in terms of GW:
Source : IEA.
The thermal flame includes all the energies that ...
Proportion of primary energy production in France
https://w3ask.com/proportion-primary-energy-production-france/
https://w3ask.com/proportion-primary-energy-production-france/
Here is a graph which allows you to visualize the proportions of the different primary energy productions in France. We can see that we are ...
Proportion of primary energy production worldwide
https://w3ask.com/proportion-primary-energy-production-worldwide/
https://w3ask.com/proportion-primary-energy-production-worldwide/
Graph showing the proportion of primary energy production in the world. Coal, oil and natural gas remain the majority in the world. Increase ...
Google is working on infinite energy
https://w3ask.com/google-working-infinite-energy/
https://w3ask.com/google-working-infinite-energy/
Google has developed an algorithm that will try to keep the plasma molten. The goal is to generate electricity for as many people as possible ...
CO2 production by energy worldwide
https://w3ask.com/co2-production-energy-worldwide/
https://w3ask.com/co2-production-energy-worldwide/
This graph shows the proportion of CO2 generated by each type of energy in the world. Coal is the most damaging, followed by petroleum, then ...