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Latest official Australian energy statistics

Energy consumption in Australia increased by 1 per cent in 2016-17, according to the 2018 Australian Energy Statistics, released recently by the Department of the Environment and Energy.

While overall energy consumption has increased, Australia is now using around 20 per cent less energy per person than at the start of this century.

Australia is also creating more value from the energy we consume. For every petajoule of energy consumed in 2016-17, gross domestic product increased by $275 million, nearly $50 million more per petajoule than a decade ago.

Most of the growth in energy consumption in 2016-17 was in plants producing liquefied natural gas, supporting growth in gas export volumes of 41 per cent.

Electricity generation and transport remained the largest energy-using activities in 2016-17.

Oil remained the largest energy source in Australia, at 38 per cent of total energy consumption in 2016-17. Coal provided a further 32 per cent, followed by natural gas and renewables.

Coal continued to provide the majority of Australia’s electricity, at 63 per cent of total generation in 2016-17. However, total coal-fired generation was 13 per cent lower in 2016-17 than at its peak a decade ago.

The share of renewables in the electricity generation mix was 16 per cent in 2016-17, and generation from renewables has more than doubled over the past decade. Hydro remained the largest source of renewable electricity generation, but output from solar and wind continued to rise.

Australia continued to be a significant exporter of energy, with total energy production around three times domestic energy consumption in 2016-17.

For more information and to access the report and full dataset visit energy.gov.au/publications/australian-energy-update-2018.

 

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