Coal now accounts for 30% of global energy use, highest since 1970

According to the latest annual BP Statistical Review of World Energy coal’s share of global energy consumption rose to 29.6% last year the highest since 1970 and up from 25.6% a decade ago.

BP said coal consumption grew by 7.6% in 2010 the fastest growth rate since 2003. China which overtook the US as the world largest energy consumer saw its consumption grow by 10% and consumed nearly half of the global coal total of 3.55 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.

The next largest consumer was the US with 524.6 million toe or 14.8% of the world consumption followed by India with a 7.8% share of the total. Even Europe showed coal consumption growth of 3.8%.

Global coal production grew by 6.3%, with China (+9% to 3.24 billion tonnes) again accounting for two-thirds of global growth. The US was the second-largest producer with 984.6 million tonnes followed by India Australia, Russia and Indonesia. Although the UK production was up by 1.8% to 535.7 million tonnes, production fell by 1.1% in the EU which helped explain the relative strength of European coal prices.

In comparison to coal global hydroelectric and nuclear output each saw the strongest increases since 2004. Hydroelectric output grew by 5.3%, with China accounting for more than 60% of global growth due to a combination of new capacity and wet weather.

Worldwide nuclear output grew by 2%, with three-quarters of the increase coming from OECD countries. French nuclear output rose by 4.4%, accounting for the largest volumetric increase in the world.

Other renewable energy sources continued to grow rapidly. Global biofuels production in 2010 grew by 13.8%, or 240,000 b/d, constituting one of the largest sources of liquids production growth in the world. Growth was driven by the US (+140,000 b/d, or 17%) and Brazil (+50,000 b/d, or 11.5%).

Renewable energy used in power generation grew by 15.5%, driven by continued robust growth in wind energy (+22.7%). The increase in wind energy in turn was driven by China and the US, which together accounted for nearly 70% of global growth. These forms of renewable energy accounted for 1.8% of global energy consumption, up from 0.6% in 2000.

Download the full report here.