Energy Consumption Per Capita – Part 2

Deep Dive Into India’s Energy Profile, And Lessons Somalia Could Learn

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Developing Example: India

3. How India Became The Powerhouse It Is Today

4. Lessons For Somalia

5. Concluding Remarks

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Bitesize Edition

• Last week introduced the concept of energy consumption per capita, through the scope of Somalia, our chosen example of an underdeveloped country. This week, we’ll continue exploring the concept through the world’s most populous country: India.

• Somalia found itself in an unfortunate position where its population was increasing at a faster rate than GNI per capita. As a result, the quality of life in Somalia isn’t increasing. Will India, with its growing population, have a GNI per capita growth higher than its population growth, indicating an improvement in quality of life?

• If India’s quality of life is improving, what energy sources is it relying on to do this? Through analysing their energy profile, and strategies used outside the energy sector, can Somalia learn any lessons from the Indians? Find out more below.

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Introduction

Last week, I covered Somalia as an example of an underdeveloped country. You can find the link to that below, along with an explanation of the history of energy and why energy consumption per capita is a proxy for quality of life:

https://geopoliticsreport.substack.com/p/energy-consumption-per-capita-part

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Developing Example: India

In 2021 data, India had 99.57% of its population with access to electricity. This has risen dramatically over the last few decades, with just over half the population having access to electricity in 1993.

71.1% of the population in 2021 had access to clean cooking fuels, rising from 11.2% in 1990.

Energy use per person also continues to rise dramatically, at 7143kWh per person in 2022. This compared to Somalia’s energy use per person of 217kWh in 2021 means those individuals in Somalia use 3% of the energy a person in India does.

One kilowatt-hour is enough to power a 100-watt lightbulb for 10 hours. So, the average person in Somalia could power a 100-watt lightbulb for 2170 hours, or just over 90 days. A person in India could do the same for 71430 hours, or 2976.25 days. I hope this highlights the stark difference in energy use in these two countries.

Per capita electricity generation is 1377kWh per person in India, compared to 22kWh in Somalia. Another interesting aspect is India’s per capita electricity generation continues to rise, whereas Somalia’s is decreasing. What can be done to turn this trend around for Somalia?