Primary energy supply
891PJs
TPES (Total Primary Energy Supply)
New Zealand Consumption
New Zealand's Consumption
While we don't consume the most, we still get through a lot of energy
- In this section:
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.
New Zealand's energy mix
1
New Zealand has the third highest rate of renewable energy as a portion of primary supply in the OECD (after Norway and Iceland). 40% of our energy comes from renewable sources.
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.
New Zealands Total Energy Consumption is
589PJs
Consumer energy demand
- Oil 48%
- Electricity 24%
- Gas 12.5%
- Other renewables 9.7%
- Geothermal 1.3%
- Coal 4.1%
Energy use per sector
- Industry 34%
- Transport 36%
- Domestic 11%
- Commercial & Public Services 9%
- Agriculture, Forest, Fish 4.7%
Energy use in households
- Space heating 34%
- Hot water 29%
- Other appliances 13%
- Refrigeration 10%
- Lighting 8%
- Oven 6%
Electricity consumption
- Residential 32%
- Commercial 24%
- Metals 16%
- Other Industry 3.9%
- Wood Pulp 6.7%
- Agriculture, Fish, Forestry 5.9%
- Food 7%
Where does our energy come from?
3
Our energy is supplied by a mix of renewable, and non-renewable sources.
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.
Oil
307PJs
Coal
53PJs
Gas
174PJs
Hydro
95PJs
Wind
7PJs
Wood
61PJs
Geothermal
188PJs
Solar
0.7PJs
The 60/40 Split
4
Right now, 60% of our energy supply comes from oil, gas and coal. Renewable energy sources supply 40% of our energy needs.
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.
Our oil & gas consumption
5
Our oil consumption, around
49m
barrels of Oil per year
Our natural gas consumption, around
4.7b
cubic meters per year.
This website was created by Energy Resources Aotearoa
While the information contained within the site is periodically updated, no guarantee is given that the information provided in this Web site is correct, complete, and up-to-date.