TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20503, 20 May 1938, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Sources of Energy The belief that water-power is fast supplanting coal as the world's chief source of energy supply is discredited by International Labour Office statistics compiled for the World Coal Conference, which will lie held in Geneva this month. The statistics show that while, in 1935, coal and lignite supplied only 60.3 per cent, of the world's energy requirements, as compared with 74.1 per cent, in 1913, the percentage supplied by water-power was only 6.6, as compared with 2.4 in 1913. Oil was coal’s chiev'rompetitor. It supplied 16.5 per cent, of the world’s energy output in 1935, ns compared with 4.5 in 1913. Next came firewood, with 12.8 per cent, in 1935, as compared with 17.6 per cent, in 1913: then, natural gas, with 3.8 in 1935, as compared with 1.4 in 1913. Thus, in 1935, con] and lignite provided three times as much energy ns oil and natural gas together; nearly five times as much as firewood; and nearlj- ten times as much as water-power.

The statistic? show that, in 1936, coal contributed somewhat less thnn three-fifths of the total supply of energy available for consumption in the United States. Bituminous coal alone was responsible for nearly half of the total: anthracite for from 6 to 7 per cent. There, as in the world at large, coal has been losing ground relatively to other sources of power supply. While, at the turn of the century, it was yielding nine-tenths of the nation's energy supply, in 1913 it yielded only four-fifths, and in 1936 less than three-fifths. In Germany and Great Britain, on the contrary, coal still provides ninetenths or more of the national energy requirements. In 1934, 88.8 per cent, of Germany's and 93.9 per cent, of Great Britain's consumption of energy were derived from raw and processed coal. The trend to oil and water power in both these countries was much more moderate than in the United States.