However, despite this increase, renewables such as hydroelectricity, wood biomass, wind and solar made up just over one per cent of Australia’s total energy production in 2006-07. Manufacturing, along with the electricity, gas and water industries were the largest domestic energy users (around one-third each), while households made up a further 12 per cent.
Over half of household energy use was on fuels such as petrol, diesel and LPG, about one quarter was on electricity, and the remainder on products such as natural gas, biomass and solar.
In its first attempt at presenting both physical and monetary aspects of energy use, the ABS found that the manufacturing industry was the largest user of electricity in 2004-05 at 313 PJ (86.9 billion kWh), with an experimental value of $3,585 million, while households used 215 PJ (59.7 billion kWh), with an experimental value of $7,818 milion.
Electricity production grew steadily over the period between 2001–02 and 2006–07, with an overall increase of 131 PJ (from 868 PJ to 999 PJ) or 15 per cent. The supply of a number of renewable energy products experienced growth between 2001–02 and 2006–07.
In particular, production of biomass wood and bagasse grew by 10 per cent, while production of liquid gas biofuels increased by 30 per cent over the period, but from a low base. Conversely, hydro electricity production fell by 10 per cent over the period (from 58 PJ to 52 PJ), reflecting drought conditions during this time (between 2001–02 and 2006–07).
While production of solar energy increased from 3 PJ to 28 PJ between 2000–01 and 2006–07, the largest increase was from 9 PJ in 2005–06 to 28 PJ in 2006–07. Also, from 2004–05 solar photovoltaic and wind power were included in this measurement. Prior to that time, the data on solar represents solar hot water only.
The gap between Australia’s production and consumption of petroleum continues to grow. In the six years to 2006-07, crude oil production fell 21 per cent; exports of crude oil and refined products fell 31 per cent, while imports grew by 35 per cent.
Energy intensity in mining has doubled over the last 30 years due to a number of factors, including a shift towards more open-cut mining. In contrast, there have been large decreases in energy intensity in other industries, such as construction (74 per cent) and transport (50 per cent).
Full details are in Energy Account, Australia.
