Energy Production and Use Graphics: Sankey Diagrams of the World, Germany, and France.

[NNadir]

A useful type of flowchart is called a "Sankey diagram," which in energy shows the primary sources of energy and how it is used in industry, transportation and residential settings.

The IEA had an extensive body of these going up to 2023 along with a description (on the linked page) of how to view them, along with a slider that can show the evolution of the diagrams from 1990 to 2023.

The graphics are partially interactive on line, but won't be in this post. The energy units are the SI unit Terrajoule, which is a millionth of an Exajoule.

Here, for convenience, is the Sankey Diagram of the whole world for 2023 which shows up when you click on the link:




Here is the Sankey Diagram for the whole world in 1990:




You may have heard in lots of lots of places at DU and in the world beyond about an "Energy Transition" that's supposed to be underway.

Really? Am I missing something? I can't see any "Energy Transition" prominent in comparing the 1990 and 2023 Diagrams.

Now two European Countries in 1990 and 2023. First Germany, in 1990 before the dubious antinuke "victory" over nuclear energy:




Germany in 2023, the year it shut its last nuclear plants, thereby deciding to kill people by burning coal and gas:




Germany, as the United States did in the last 30 years, reduced, but did not eliminate dependence on coal, but to the extent coal was replaced, it was largely by dangerous natural gas. So called "renewable energy" is trivial in Germany as it is in the rest of the world, despite its 5.6+ trillion dollar price tag.

Let's turn to France:

France in 1990:




France in 2023:





In 1990, France's real energy transition from coal to nuclear was already underway. As of 2023, the tiny amounts of coal imported into France are not used for power generation, but for materials use.

From 1990 to 2025, as far as electric power was concerned, France didn't need an "energy transition." They were (and are) way ahead of the rest of the world, still the only nation on Earth without much hydroelectric capacity to rely almost exclusively on clean nuclear power. One may ask to compare the number of people in France who were killed by exposure to radiation from power plants to the number of people killed by coal waste dumped into the planetary atmosphere by the antinuke Germans.

To me, these Sankey diagrams graphically demonstrate something called "reality," despite all the popular sloganeering about "energy transitions."

Have a nice evening.