Australian energy use increased in 2015-16, but also became more efficient according to the latest edition of the annual Energy Account released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Total net energy use increased by five per cent in 2015-16, ABS Environment and Agriculture spokesperson Lauren Binns said, with net exports of energy increasing by 10 per cent (to account for 75 per cent of net energy use).
Australian industry and households both reported small one per cent increases in net energy use over the period.
“However, although Australian industry used more energy overall in 2015-16, it made more from it, requiring two per cent less energy for each million dollars of economic output between 2014-15 and 2015-16,” Ms Binns said.
There was a similar pattern at the household level.
“On average, each Australian household used 141 gigajoules of energy in 2015-16 – that’s a one per cent decrease from 2014-15 and a nearly six per cent decrease over the decade since 2005-06,” Ms Binns said.
