Energy targets for Desertopolis

Bill Dutopia has read that according to surveys, the people of Denmark are the happiest in the world. Therefore, he supposes, if his city can provide physical amenities at least equivalent to those available in Danish cities, it will have all the physical resources needed to ensure a happy population.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Denmark has a population of 5,432,335 (July 2005 estimate), and a per capita GDP of $33,000. Its energy and water needs are as follows:

Electricity consumption: 31.68 billion kWh, which amounts to 5832 kWh per capita.
Oil consumption: 188,300 bbl/day (2003 est.), which amounts to 2012 litres per capita per year.
Natural gas consumption: 5.28 billion cu m (2001 est.) , which amounts to 972 cu m per capita.

Coal isn't mentioned, but presumably nearly all coal, if used at all, is used to generate electricity. A lot of the natural gas is presumably used to provide electricity, too. Let's assume half the natural gas is used for that purpose, and the rest is for heating and cooking. We'll assume that 90% of oil is used for transport, and the rest is used as a raw material for manufacture of, e.g., plastics.

One cubic metre of natural gas translates into 10.6 kWh of electricity. The proportion of natural gas that isn't used for electricity generation (we're assuming half) needs to be converted into kWh, and added to our energy total. It amounts to 5.28/2 * 10.6 kWh = 27.964 billion kWh, or 5151 kWh per capita.

One litre of petrol is equivalent to 9 kWh of electricity (if converted with 100% efficiency). In driving a petrol-engined car, it is converted into motion with about 25% efficiency. Electric vehicles are twice as efficient as petrol, and since there will be no petrol in Desertopolis, we're going to assume we need half as much energy to get people around in our electric buses/cars/whatever as we would have done in petrol-driven vehicles. Currently, Danes use up 16297.2 kWh per capita travelling around in petrol-driven vehicles (if our assumptions are right). Therefore, in our zero-petrol city, the denizens will spend 8,148.6 kWh travelling around in the equivalent electric vehicles, if they move about just as much.

The energy requirements per annum for Desertopolis are as follows, then:

resource	per capita	total	rounded up
energy for replacement of petroleum in transport	8,148.6 kWh	814,860 GWh	820 TWh
energy for other uses	(5832 + 5151) = 10,983 kWh	1,098,300 GWh	1,100 TWh

Quite hefty, really.

There's also a need for 201 litres of hydrocarbons per capita per year as a raw material for manufacturing. or 20.1 billion litres for the city as a whole. These will have to be obtained through some chemical or biological process, as there's no petroleum.