University of Wisconsin-Madison

The next step is to see how much total energy will be needed in the 21st Century and do we have enough fossil fuels on hand? The cumulative amount of energy needed to satisfy even the most conservative scenario (below) reveals that from 1995 to the year 2050 we will have to use up ~ 6 trillion boe of energy and by the year 2100, that cumulative number will reach over 14 trillion boe. Since the estimate (see Lecture 3) of economically recoverable fossil fuels is ~ 7 trillion boe (1 tboe oil, 1 tboe natural gas, and 5 tboe coal), our simple calculations predict real trouble by the year 2060.