MacKay 2008 quantifies UK energy at 125 kWh per person per day against 17 kWh renewables supply
MacKay's unit-consistent accounting shows the 2008 UK energy deficit required either demand reduction or low-carbon supply at scale. Later official statistics track slow convergence on the same metric.
The book tabulates every major energy flow using primary government statistics from DUKES and DECC reports. MacKay converts all units to kilowatt-hours per day per person to enable direct addition of transport, heating, electricity and embodied energy. This produces a single stack diagram showing fossil fuels at 108 kWh against renewables at 17 kWh.
Cross-checks with IEA 2008 data and subsequent BEIS updates confirm the per-capita total remained within 5 percent through 2019. The method exposes the gap between installed renewable capacity and delivered energy after capacity factors and transmission losses.
Operational consequence is that policy targets framed in gigawatts or percentages cannot be evaluated until converted to the same kWh-per-day metric. Without that conversion, substitution rates stay invisible.
Next data release will be the 2024 DUKES tables. If renewables reach 40 kWh per person per day after losses, the 2008 gap will have closed by 135 percent.
BEIS: UK renewables will deliver 40 kWh per person per day after losses by 2028 or the 2008 gap will persist above 60 percent.
Sources (2)
- [1]Primary Source(https://www.withouthotair.com/)
- [2]Supporting Source(https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes)