Oxford energy researcher says electrification could halve global energy demand
Professor Jan Rosenow argues that shifting mobility and heating from fossil fuels to electricity could cut total energy use in half by dramatically improving efficiency.
What to know
- Electricity accounts for only 20% of global energy use; the remaining 80% in mobility and heating is still dominated by fossil fuels.
- Current energy systems waste two-thirds of all inputs as heat, making them fundamentally inefficient.
- Shifting to electrified alternatives like heat pumps and industrial heat batteries could cut total global energy demand in half.
- The transition requires tackling myths and milestones of electrification across multiple sectors.
Professor Jan Rosenow Professor of Energy and Climate Policy, Oxford UniversityRobert Llewellyn Host, Fully Charged podcast
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
-
1
Rosenow explains current energy system wastes two-thirds as heat
Rosenow argues the current energy system is "astonishingly inefficient," wasting two-thirds of all energy inputs as heat. He explains how shifting to electrification at scale, including heat pumps and industrial heat batteries, could address this inefficiency.
“astonishingly inefficient," wasting two-thirds of all energy inputs as heat…”
— Professor Jan Rosenow -
> EVs are 4 - 5X efficientNot even close> Heatpumps are 4 - 5X efficientCompared to heating elements, possible, but that's cause heatpumps do not create heat, but move heat. They come with the disadvantage of being really slow, and would increase baseline load during nighttime.> Induction stoves are 4 - 5X efficient (vs gas stoves)Nope>…
2 more of the top 3 · 20 posts in this stretch
-
1) EVs are 4 - 5X efficient2) Heatpumps are 4 - 5X efficient3) Induction stoves are 4 - 5X efficient (vs gas stoves)Transportation, heating and cooling, cooking are all 4 - 5X efficient.Centralized power generation with fossil fuels loses ~75% (67% wasted up front, remaining in transmission and distribution).There are many many other losses and…
-
I understand the heat pumps and EV part, but how is induction stove so much more efficient than gas stove?Sure you're putting the heat directly into the pot, OK I get that part. But a gas stove doesn't waste 80+% of the energy to the house. And any pot on an induction stove will also heat up and lose some energy to the house as well. Induction…
-
-
background
Fully Charged publishes Rosenow interview on electrification efficiency gains — Robert Llewellyn interviews Professor Jan Rosenow from Oxford University on the Everything Electric podcast, discussing how electrification could cut global energy demand in half. The episode focuses on addressing the "hidden 80%" of energy use in mobility and heating sectors still dominated by fossil fuels.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
-
first by HN Best, 7d ago · also HN Frontpage
What people are saying 16 voices from 1 site · best of 20 · verbatim
- Nov 1
-
That video friggin' radicalised me. It's SO unbelievably goddamned stupid that we don't invest everything in what is essentially free energy that will last for decades right now. It solves SO many problems, and even removes a few of the biggest objections people have to AI datacenters. The tech is there, it's mature, and it would make all of our…
-
Globally, we barely use any energy. What we need is to do is solve geoengineering and cooling the planet so we can use much MORE energy.No matter how efficient we get we won't be able to offer future generations a better quality of life if we don't use more.
-
About five years ago, I swapped my gas domestic hot water to a heat pump unit and my electric bill actually went down. Just being able to patch and insulate the roof exhaust from the gas unit saved more in spaced conditioning than the added (but minimal) electric load from the new heat pump itself.
-
> defense budget to protect oil infraIf there were no oil, the defense budget would likely be the same.
-
For the energy transition , making renewables , RELIABLE ( at large scale) for a country is the very challenging part.
-
There never were nasty chemicals in silicon PV. It's not that you needed to update formerly correct information, it's that you've been lied to for decades.
-
Misleading phrasing of the point, maybe “electrification could double energy efficiency”
-
The defense budget spend will continue with nuclear, storage, transmission, and solar sites.I hope a case could be made that there is less supply chain to defend though at a lower cost.
-
I use gas for stovetop cooking, heat, and water heating (tankless). The demand charge for running an induction stove at dinner would be around $36. The an electric tankless water heater would be around $72. An electric furnace would cost $180. If those run at the same time (which may or may not be hard to control) the demand charge stacks.My…
-
The anti-renewables misinformation seems high in some places of the world.Can I ask if you are in the US?It seems better in the EU where a lot of people happily embraced residential solar
-
The “Urban mining” part is the most underrated part of the electrification. Few journalists or commentators get the importance of the recycling industry for batteries. First on the geopolitical side, it means that once need are covered, material can stay in the same region, so no continuous dependance to extracting regions. Second, if we manage to…
-
What kind of article shows you a newsletter pop-up as soon as you load the page? That virtually guarantees not a single person would ever enter their information because they haven't even had a single second's chance to make any sort of determination yet.
-
No more bitcoin cryptocurrency and will solve this issue. it has been wasting electric energy.
-
I decarbonized my 125 year old home this summer. Cold winters here, using mini split heat pumps now for heat. Previously had oil, and 90 years ago it would have used coal. Love thinking this will be the first winter this house ever had where dirty exhaust wont be going up the chimney to keep it warm.
-
I swapped my hvac for an electric heat pump. My energy usage went down. Because electricity is way too expensive and I’m okay sweating a bit in the summers and wearing jackets indoors in the winters.
- Oct 31
-
I only now got around to watching the Technology Connections video on renewable energy, I wish I had seen it sooner. Almost feels like it should be required viewing. I definitely thought there were nastier chemicals/compounds in solar panels and hadn't updated my knowledge on them in decades.