Energy Security: Demand, Supply and Sustainable Solutions

Energy security exists when a country can reliably and affordably meet its population's energy needs from stable sources without significant supply disruption.

Global energy consumption — deeply unequal:

Country / region	Per capita energy use	Characteristic
USA	~75 GJ/person/year	Very high — car-dependent, large homes, energy-intensive industry
UK	~50 GJ/person/year	High; declining due to efficiency improvements and deindustrialisation
China	~35 GJ/person/year	Rising rapidly; world's largest total energy consumer since 2010
India	~12 GJ/person/year	Still relatively low per capita; growing fast
Sub-Saharan Africa (average)	~6–8 GJ/person/year	Low; approximately 600 million without electricity access

Global energy mix (share of total primary energy supply, 2022):

• Oil: ~33% — dominated by transport; Middle East, Russia, USA are major producers
• Coal: ~27% — dominant in electricity generation, especially China and India
• Natural gas: ~24% — heating, electricity; major producers: USA, Russia, Qatar
• Nuclear: ~5% — low-carbon electricity; France generates ~70% of electricity from nuclear
• Renewables (wind, solar, hydro, bioenergy): ~11% and growing rapidly

The chart below shows how fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) still supply roughly four-fifths of the world's energy.

Why is energy consumption increasing globally?

• Population growth: more people require more energy for cooking, heating, transport, and manufacturing
• Rising incomes in NEEs: industrialisation in China, India, and other NEEs has driven massive growth in energy-intensive manufacturing; growing middle classes purchase cars, appliances, and air conditioning
• Urbanisation: cities consume more energy per capita than rural areas (transport, lighting, commercial activity); as LICs and NEEs urbanise, energy demand rises
• Technology: proliferation of electronic devices, data centres (which consume approximately 1–2% of global electricity), and electric vehicles (once grid-connected) all increase electricity demand

Physical factors:

• Fossil fuel deposits: oil, gas, and coal deposits are unevenly distributed; Middle Eastern countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran) hold approximately two-thirds of proven oil reserves; Russia, USA, and Australia hold large coal and gas reserves; geographic concentration creates geopolitical power and global price volatility
• Renewable energy resources: solar irradiance is highest in equatorial and desert regions (Sahara, Arabian Peninsula, Atacama); wind is strongest in coastal, offshore, and mountain areas; hydroelectric potential depends on river volume and gradient (Congo River, Yangtze, Mekong have huge potential); tidal and wave energy potential depends on tidal range (Severn Estuary, UK: 14 m range — one of the world's highest)

Human factors:

• Technology: extraction of oil and gas from deep offshore fields, tight shale formations (fracking), and Arctic reserves requires advanced technology; countries without this technology cannot exploit their own resources
• Cost: renewable energy capital costs have fallen dramatically (offshore wind costs fell by ~60% between 2010 and 2020; solar fell by ~90%); coal is cheap to burn but increasingly expensive when environmental and social costs are internalised; some energy sources are commercially unviable without subsidy
• Political factors: energy supply is shaped by political decisions — OPEC's production quotas set global oil prices; trade sanctions (USA on Iran, Russia); political instability in oil-producing regions (Nigeria, Libya, Iraq) disrupts supply; the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war caused Europe's largest post-Cold War energy crisis as Russian gas supplies were cut

Environmental impacts:

• Burning fossil fuels releases CO₂ and other greenhouse gases — the dominant cause of recent climate change (see 3.1.1.4 Climate Change)
• Oil spills and gas flaring: extraction accidents devastate marine and coastal ecosystems (Deepwater Horizon 2010 spilled 780 million litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico)
• Coal mining leaves contaminated land, acid mine drainage, and subsidence; North Sea gas production has caused measurable subsidence in eastern England

Economic and social impacts:

• Energy poverty: households that cannot afford to heat their homes adequately, or lack electricity; approximately 733 million people globally have no electricity; in the UK, approximately 3 million households were in fuel poverty in 2022–23 (spending >10% of income on energy after energy bill price spikes)
• Price volatility: oil price shocks (1973, 1979, 2008, 2022) have caused global recessions; countries dependent on fuel imports are particularly exposed
• Geopolitical leverage: major energy exporters can use energy supply as political leverage — Russia's gas cut to Europe in 2022 demonstrated how energy dependence can constrain foreign policy choices
• Development costs of energy insecurity in LICs: without reliable electricity, healthcare facilities cannot function at night; students cannot study; small businesses cannot operate equipment; energy insecurity is both a consequence and a cause of underdevelopment

Non-renewable (finite) energy sources:

Source	How it works	Advantages	Disadvantages
Coal	Burned to produce steam to drive turbines	Cheap; reliable; easy to store and transport	CO₂ and SO₂ emissions; particulates; mining damage; finite
Oil	Refined to petrol/diesel; burned in engines and power stations	Energy-dense; easy to transport	CO₂; supply vulnerability; finite; price volatility
Natural gas	Burned in turbines or heating systems	Lower CO₂ than coal; flexible	Still carbon-emitting; supply vulnerability; methane leakage
Nuclear	Fission of uranium releases heat to drive turbines	Low CO₂; reliable base-load; long plant life	Radioactive waste; high construction cost; public opposition; accident risk

Renewable energy sources:

Source	Example	Advantages	Disadvantages
Wind (offshore)	Hornsea One (UK) — 1.2 GW	No CO₂; no fuel cost; UK offshore resource is vast	Intermittent; visual impact; bird/bat collision; high construction cost
Solar PV	Sahara Desert solar farms; UK rooftop panels	No CO₂; no fuel cost; declining capital cost; distributed	Intermittent; land use; panel manufacturing uses scarce minerals
Hydroelectric (HEP)	Itaipu Dam (Brazil/Paraguay) — 14 GW	No CO₂; reliable; long-lived	Habitat flooding; community displacement; siltation; drought vulnerability
Wave and tidal	Severn Tidal Lagoon proposals (UK)	Predictable; no CO₂	High construction cost; limited locations; ecological impacts
Geothermal	Nesjavellir (Iceland)	Continuous; no CO₂; heats 90% of Icelandic homes	Only viable near tectonic activity; high drilling cost elsewhere
Bioenergy	Drax Power Station (UK) — wood pellets	Can be carbon-neutral if sustainably managed	Land use; biodiversity concerns; transport emissions; not carbon-neutral if forests not replanted

Example: North Sea oil and gas extraction (UK)

The UK has been extracting oil and gas from the North Sea since the 1970s following major field discoveries (Forties field, 1970; Brent Spar, 1976). At peak production (1999), the North Sea produced ~4.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day; by 2022 production had fallen to approximately 1.5 million barrels per day.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Provided UK energy self-sufficiency from 1980s to early 2000s; reduced dependence on imported oil	Production now declining; UK has become a net energy importer; finite resource
Government revenues from oil and gas taxes funded public spending (North Sea revenues peaked at ~£12 billion/year in the early 2000s)	Boom-bust character: high revenues when prices are high; minimal contribution when prices fall (2015–2016 revenues fell to near zero)
Supports approximately 200,000 direct and indirect UK jobs in Aberdeen and northeast Scotland	Decommissioning ageing platforms will cost an estimated £20 billion; responsibility for clean-up falls partly on taxpayers
Reduced need to import energy, improving balance of payments	Offshore accidents (Piper Alpha platform fire, 1988 — 167 deaths; remains the world's worst offshore oil disaster) and oil spills damage marine ecosystems
Modern production techniques recover more oil with fewer wells	Continued investment in new North Sea licenses is contested: "North Sea Transition Deal" aims to manage decline while protecting jobs and transitioning to renewables; environmental groups argue new licenses are incompatible with UK net-zero targets

Strategy 1: Diversified energy mix Relying on multiple energy sources — rather than one or two — reduces vulnerability to supply disruption (if one source fails or becomes expensive, others compensate) and to price volatility.

Strategy 2: Renewable energy deployment

• Offshore wind: UK world leader; Dogger Bank wind farm (under construction, 3.6 GW — to be world's largest when complete); offshore wind could supply all UK electricity by the late 2030s
• Solar: declining capital cost means solar is now the cheapest new electricity source in most countries; particularly important in tropical LICs and NEEs where solar irradiance is consistently high
• HEP: already provides ~16% of global electricity; enormous unexploited potential in Africa (Grand Inga Dam proposal in DRC could produce ~40 GW — almost twice the Three Gorges Dam's 22.5 GW)

Strategy 3: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) CCS technology captures CO₂ from power station or industrial exhaust gases before it reaches the atmosphere, and injects it underground (into depleted oil fields or saline aquifers). If scaled up, CCS could allow fossil fuels to be used with dramatically reduced CO₂ emissions. Currently very expensive and unproven at large scale; the Sleipner field (Norway) has stored CO₂ under the North Sea since 1996.

Example: local renewable energy scheme in an LIC or NEE:

Solar home systems in Bangladesh (Grameen Shakti): Grameen Shakti ("rural energy" in Bengali) is a non-profit company that has installed solar home systems (SHS) across rural Bangladesh since 1996:

• A solar home system consists of a small rooftop panel (20–130 watts), a battery, and LED lighting and phone-charging sockets
• By 2022, Grameen Shakti had installed approximately 4 million solar home systems — the largest off-grid solar programme in the world; powers approximately 20 million rural Bangladeshis who live beyond the national grid
• Benefits: eliminates kerosene (fire hazard, indoor air pollution, CO₂); enables children to study at night; powers phone charging; powers small businesses; reduces household energy costs after initial investment
• Financing: a micro-credit model allows households to pay in monthly instalments they can afford (similar to Grameen Bank's microfinance model); no upfront capital required
• Bangladesh has also reduced solar panel prices through local assembly and manufacturing, creating jobs and reducing import costs

1. Treating renewable energy as entirely problem-free

Renewables have significant advantages (no CO₂, no fuel cost, domestic supply). But wind and solar are intermittent; hydroelectric requires habitat-flooding dams; bioenergy can involve deforestation; offshore wind involves habitat disruption during construction. A complete answer presents both sides with specific evidence.

2. Describing energy security as only about supply

Energy security requires reliable supply at an affordable price. Price is as important as physical availability — the 2022 energy price spike caused fuel poverty for millions in the UK, even though physical supply was not cut. Note both dimensions: supply availability AND price stability.

3. Confusing renewable with sustainable

Renewable means the energy source is naturally replenished (wind, solar, water). Sustainable means meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet theirs. Most renewable energy is sustainable, but not all: bioenergy from forest clearance is renewable but not sustainable (it depletes long-lived carbon stores). Use both terms accurately.

4. Forgetting carbon capture and storage as a strategy

CCS is explicitly named in the spec and is a key strategy for making continued fossil fuel use compatible with net-zero targets. It is different from simply switching to renewables — CCS decarbonises existing industrial processes (steel, cement, chemical plants) where renewables cannot easily substitute. Include it as a distinct strategy when discussing sustainable energy futures.

5. Not naming a specific fossil fuel extraction example

"Fossil fuels are bad" earns no marks. "The North Sea Piper Alpha disaster (1988) killed 167 workers and caused severe marine pollution, while North Sea decommissioning will cost an estimated £20 billion in cleanup costs" demonstrates specific, located knowledge. Name the North Sea (or another named field) and cite specific advantages and disadvantages.