Grey energyAll the energy to produce something. For example You drink a glass of milk. The grey energy is used to transport the chow to the cow, to transport the milk to the creamery....To transport the milk from the creamery to the shop....The energy for the refrigerator in the shop. ...The energy for light and heating system in the shop. Maybe an average German thinks: 2400 l oil for heating divided by 3 person in my house gives 800 l oil or 8000 kWh, 4500 kWh electrical power divided by 3 persons in my house gives 1500 kWh. 1800 l gasoline for our car divided by 3 persons using our car gives 6000 kWh. So I have a yearly energy consume of 15500 kWh. It is very hard to find out the total amount of grey energy. It is easy to count some energy double or to miss some energy. So let's see the total energy usage of all Germans: When 80M Germans are using 500M t stone coal unit a year, the average German is using 62500 kWh yearly and not 15500 kWh like in the above example. The small difference from 47000 kWh yearly what the average German thinks about his energy consume and what is really going on is the grey energy.
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