Energies

Abstract

Traditional societies depended on biofuels and animate power from draft animals and human labor. The energy transition reduced biomass fuels to a globally marginal role, as fossil fuel extraction and electricity generation provided abundant and affordable energy. Consequences of this supply were magnified by conversions of fuels and electricity in new prime movers (first steam engines, and then internal combustion engines, electric lights, and motors). Indeed, they have nearly eliminated animate power, resulting in mechanization of agriculture and industrial production, in the rise of mass mobility, and in the deployment of electronic devices throughout the entire economy. Higher average per capita energy supply has been even more impressive when steady gains in conversion efficiency, and the resulting declines of energy intensities of products and services, are taken into account.