(For new reader and those who request 好友请求, please read my 公告栏 first).

The US National Academy of Engineering released just the other day a 31 page report to the nation on “What you need to know about energy” http://www7.nationalacademies.org/energy/energybooklet.html

Although it is aimed at people in the US, much of what it says apply also to China. In fact as two of the largest energy consumers of the world, the energy problems facing the two nations are not that different (Both imports a lot of oil, both have large coal deposits. China in 2008 supposedly will surpass the US in greenhouse generation).

I learned quite a few facts about energy from this easy to read and comprehensive report to the populace. For example,

• Only 2 % of the energy input to a power plant eventually gets to the consumer to produce light from a bulb. The other 98% are lost as waste heat.
• Only 20% of the energy content of gasoline becomes motion power for an automobile
• The advantages of chemical energy of gasoline over stored electric energy in batteries.
• What is one “quad” of energy? How much electric power a typical wind turbine generates? How much do the “transportation, commercial. Industrial, and residential” sector of the US economy consume energy in percentage terms respectively? In particular, what is the % breakdown of energy use in the residential sector?
• Short term scenario on how energy resources, such as coal, gas, and oil plus other renewable forms are being used (in absolute and % terms) to produce usable and wasted energy. There is a most clear diagram (一目了然) depicting this complex relationship.
• For longer term, the possibilities of other non fossil fuel alternatives.

The report can be downloaded from the above site and in my opinion is well worth reading by all citizens of the developing and developed world. We are in this together!