This is more like energy consumption trivia, actually. I find these details fascinating and they give me more of a snapshot feel of what’s actually happening in the real world. Your mileage may vary…

Good news, bad news department

• Over 50 million homes in the U.S. have 3 or more televisions
• In 2009, 58 percent of housing units had energy efficient, multi-pane windows, up from 36 percent in the 1993 survey.

Net effect: In 2005, energy use per household was 95 million British thermal units (Btu) of energy compared with 138 million Btu per household in 1978, a drop of 31 percent.

Canary in the coal mine department

• Kuwait’s energy consumption has increased 66% since 2000
•  Figures from Eurogas, a non-profit organization representing natural-gas companies, showed a 12.9% decline in gas consumption in Germany last year. There was a similar decline in the Netherlands, of 12.8%, and falls of 7% in Spain and 6.3% in Italy. Electricity demand also fell sharply in the period, down 11% in Belgium and 11.2% in Switzerland.

Yin or Yang?

• China will allocate 26.5 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) in subsidies to promote the use of energy-saving household appliances and products
• Chinese energy consumption, which is considered a barometer of the economy, grew just 3.7 percent in April from a year earlier – the slowest pace in more than a year. The growth rate in March was 7 percent.

Not sure I get a coherent picture of what’s really happening from this… except that I don’t think it’s possible to take a ‘global’ view of energy consumption at this moment. What we seem to be seeing is the Great Divergence between developed and developing nations. Energy consumption is a part of it, but it certainly seems that it’s larger than that in scope.