California Screaming

It is very hard to find primary energy data for for Californians. Even Google’s Average Intelligence (AI) tool confuses California primary energy for electricity.

After some digging through OurWorldInData.org, the EIA website and the California Energy Commission website, here is a first (?) graphical comparison for all primary energy and electricity consumption by an average energy consumer in the USA and in California.

Let’s walk through some observations associated with the bar graph below:

• Electricity as a share of primary energy is smaller for Californians at about 14%.

• Californians use less overall energy, especially less natural gas for heating, due to their moderate outside temperatures.

• Californians have mostly eliminated their use of coal for electricity generation, while hydro-electric power and nuclear also represent a smaller fraction of their use.

• Wind, solar and other renewables (biomass, geothermal) represent larger portions of California energy use, but these sources combine only to about 12% of their total primary energy consumption.

• You may already know that California imports lots of oil and natural gas and is nowhere near self-sufficiency, but it also imports a significant portion of its electricity, especially right after sunset every day.

• The single largest source of electricity in California is natural gas.

Some professors may scream from their university roofs that California is different, but what they don’t say is that electricity only represents a very small portion of everything Californians consume. When it comes to general energy consumption, Californians are not that different from other Americans.