BGR Energy Study 2019. Data and Developments Concerning German and Global Energy Supplies - Summary
Development of German primary energy consumption from 1950 to 2018
Source: BGR, AGEB, IEA
Even though global energy consumption has declined during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the long-tem global trend is for a growing demand for energy. As in previous years, global energy consumption grew further in 2018, the reporting year of this study. The growth in the global population, and the increase in overall living standards, will probably also give rise to a growing demand for energy, despite improvements in energy efficiency.
Notwithstanding the ongoing shifts in the global energy mix, energy supplies continue to be mainly upheld by only a limited number of energy resources. To be able to adequately cover the growing global rise in energy demand in the future, fossil fuels and nuclear power, alongside renewables, will continue to play a major role in the coming decades as well.
The biggest challenge in the decades to come is therefore energy system conversion. Important measures have been implemented in Germany with the aim of establishing a low-emissions energy supply: in addition to the ongoing withdrawal from the use of nuclear power, the government has also agreed the step-wise reduction in the energetic use of coal. A visible sign of the energy transition is the continually growing proportion of renewables in the energy supply system. Their share in power production in 2018 was 35 %. In addition to the further expansion of biomass, windpower and photovoltaics, natural gas will foreseeably have to bridge the gap in demand until primary energy can be supplied in a climate-neutral way by the middle of the century. Natural gas is the fossil fuel with the lowest specific CO2 emissions.
With its annually published Energy Study, BGR presents the latest facts on global energy resource supplies and the trade in the fossil fuels crude oil, natural gas, coal, as well as nuclear fuels. The study also provides information on the global production of renewable energy resources. With this research data, BGR provides an important database for the fact-based discussion of the multi-facetted and complex topic of sustainable energy supplies.
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