
Primary energy supply
891PJs
TPES (Total Primary Energy Supply)
Energy helps us do our kiwi thing - it powers and heats our homes and workplaces, and transports us and our goods around the country and out into the world. Almost half our energy is used for transport alone, and a quarter of our energy usage is in the form of electricity. Let's take a closer look.
1
While we rely heavily on renewables, such as hydro, geothermal and wind to produce our electricity, 60% of our energy still comes from fossil fuels.
In fact, we use around 49 million barrels of crude oil every year - that’s more than 1,600 litres of crude oil per person, per year. Together, that is enough oil to fill the Wellington Regional Stadium (the 'Cake Tin') around 13 times.
We also use over 4 billion cubic metres of natural gas every year.
589PJs
3
New Zealand Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) is generally measured in petajoules (PJs). Our TPES is the total amount of energy available for use in its raw state. A petajoule is a recognised measure of large quantities of energy.
It is worth noting that our primary energy supply (891PJs) differs from our actual consumption of energy (589PJs) by over 300PJs. This is because a portion of our primary energy supply (around one third) is used up in the process of 'transforming' it from an initial raw state (like geothermal steam energy) into a useable form (electricity). Significant quantities of energy are lost in the process of energy transformation and in the distribution/energy management process.
891PJs
TPES (Total Primary Energy Supply)
4
This is the highest proportion from renewable energy since records began. New Zealand had the highest renewable primary energy supply in the OECD after Norway and Iceland in 2014.
5
49m
barrels of Oil per year
4.7b
cubic meters per year.