Our Baseload

The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us again that we are human. Normally we live, create life and eventually after many years we hope to die of relatively painless old age. This pandemic sees many people across the world dying long before old age expectations. The final effects on human birth and death rate may be as noticeable as with the Spanish Influenza of 1918.

With many countries mandating only essential activities because of COVID-19 then we’d also expect energy consumption to drop. And it has. But for the first quarter of 2020 it only dropped by about 3.8%. The second quarter sees a reduction of 10% from the previous year. Now, given the continual proclamation to restore economies, we’re seeing activities return to usual and energy consumption responding in accord.

This small drop in energy consumption due to COVID-19 indicates that even while we are cloistered at home we still demand a huge amount of energy. Also, it indicates that if we continue to rely upon the economy to nurture our lives and give us a grand old age then we need continual access to huge amounts of energy. What happens when we consume all the non-renewable energy sources?