The Oil Drum | Stories tagged with "barrel of oil equivalent"

Stories tagged with "barrel of oil equivalent"

What is a Human Being Worth (in Terms of Energy)?

Posted by Luis de Sousa on July 20, 2008 - 9:50am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Sociology/Psychology
Tags: barrel of oil equivalent, human power, original [list all tags]

Days ago Euan got a ping from London based journalist Jonathan Ossoff:

We've tracked down a lot of statistics that demonstrate just how remarkable oil is as a resource, but we're having a bit of trouble synthesizing and contextualizing that data to get a usable understanding of how oil compares to, say, human labour, or a hydroelectric plant, as an energy source.

This query prompted an interesting discussion among the TOD staff on the comparison of human labour to oil.

Right: Bradley Wiggins, one of today's top endurance athletes. He can sustain a power output of about 500 watts for extended periods of time. But how significant is that number?

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