Another sexy blog post title, right?
Yesterday I showed DOE EIA figures exhibiting large variation in annual global energy consumption from 1980 to 2012. I am now going to spend some time looking for correlates with this variability to see if we can find one with explanatory power.
The first and obvious choice is global GDP. While energy consumption grew from 283 quads in 1980 to 529 quads in 2012, GDP grew from $11.16 trillion to $73.51 trillion in constant U.S. dollars.
During the 33 years covered, energy consumption grew at a 1.91% annual rate, while GDP grew at a 5.88% annual rate.
Two years grew at $7 trillion each (2007 and 2011), one at $6 trillion (2010), two at $5 trillion (2004 and 2008) and one at $4 trillion (2003). The median was $2 trillion and six years showed essentially zero growth. Analysis to follow
| Date | World GDP | GDP Growth | Quads | Growth in Quads |
| 31-Dec-11 | 72.14 | 7 | 520.2721 | 12.5 |
| 31-Dec-07 | 57.33 | 7 | 478.7327 | 11 |
| 31-Dec-10 | 65.22 | 6 | 507.9768 | 28 |
| 31-Dec-08 | 62.86 | 5 | 485.7181 | 7 |
| 31-Dec-04 | 43.41 | 5 | 441.3221 | 20 |
| 31-Dec-03 | 38.56 | 4 | 421.4558 | 13 |
| 31-Dec-05 | 46.96 | 3 | 455.1495 | 14 |
| 31-Dec-95 | 30.64 | 3 | 364.511 | 8 |
| 31-Dec-13 | 75.59 | 2 | 0 | |
| 31-Dec-94 | 27.69 | 2 | 356.0476 | 14 |
| 31-Dec-92 | 25.31 | 2 | 347.7992 | <1> |
| 31-Dec-90 | 22.52 | 2 | 346.983 | 3 |
| 31-Dec-88 | 19.08 | 2 | 338.0998 | 13 |
| 31-Dec-87 | 17.04 | 2 | 325.6042 | 10 |
| 31-Dec-86 | 14.98 | 2 | 315.773 | 7 |
| 31-Dec-80 | 11.16 | 2 | 283.1474 | 0 |
| 31-Dec-12 | 73.51 | 1 | 528.7973 | 7.5 |
| 31-Dec-06 | 50.88 | 1 | 467.5628 | 12 |
| 31-Dec-02 | 34.33 | 1 | 408.0402 | 8 |
| 31-Dec-00 | 33.28 | 1 | 398.276 | 11 |
| 31-Dec-99 | 32.24 | 1 | 387.075 | 9 |
| 31-Dec-96 | 31.3 | 1 | 373.7722 | 9 |
| 31-Dec-91 | 23.64 | 1 | 348.0959 | 2 |
| 31-Dec-89 | 20.02 | 1 | 343.8671 | 6 |
| 31-Dec-85 | 12.66 | 0.5 | 308.0872 | 9 |
| 31-Dec-84 | 12.04 | 0.5 | 299.6706 | 15 |
| 31-Dec-81 | 11.45 | 0.5 | 280.9213 | <3> |
| 31-Dec-01 | 33.09 | 0 | 400.5864 | 2 |
| 31-Dec-98 | 31.09 | 0 | 378.8662 | 2 |
| 31-Dec-97 | 31.21 | 0 | 376.7177 | 3 |
| 31-Dec-93 | 25.74 | 0 | 342.6242 | <5> |
| 31-Dec-83 | 11.6 | 0 | 284.3379 | 4 |
| 31-Dec-82 | 11.35 | 0 | 280.5326 | 0.5 |
| 31-Dec-09 | 59.54 | <3> | 480.0048 | <5> |
3000 Quads 
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