How Much Energy Do Humans Generate and Consume?

We usually talk about energy in terms of power plants and fuels, but our bodies are tiny power stations too. A typical human produces roughly 80 watts continuously, about the power of a small light bulb. Scaling that by population gives an interesting historical perspective.

Let's do some calculations and visualizations ... 

The numbers over time (using 80 W per person)

  • ~10,000 years ago (~8000 BCE)

    • Population: ~10,000,000
    • Instantaneous Human Body Power: 0.8 GW
    • Yearly Energy Generated by Population: ~7 TWh

  • ~500 years ago (~1500 CE)

    • Population: ~350,000,000
    • Instantaneous Population Human Body Power:  28 GW
    • Yearly Energy Generated by Population: ~245 TWh

  • ~65 years ago (1960 CE)

    • Population: ~3,500,000,000
    • Instantaneous Population Human Body Power: 280 GW
    • Yearly Energy Generated by Population: ~2,452 TWh

  • Today (~2025 CE)

    • Population: ~8,000,000,000
    • Instantaneous Population Human Body Power: 640 GW
    • Yearly Energy Generated by Population: ~5,606 TWh

Data vizualization

Data Vizualization
Quick context

These figures are metabolic power (mostly body heat and biological functions), not directly usable mechanical or electrical energy. Still, at today’s scale, humanity itself is a kind of “power plant,” comparable to a significant fraction of global electricity use.

Conclusion + Energy Comparison

Using 80 W per person, humanity today (~8 billion people) generates about 5,606 TWh per year in metabolic energy (the heat/biological energy from our bodies).

For comparison:

  • Global electricity final consumption is around 28,500 TWh/year (2022 figures). Ember+1
  • Global primary energy consumption (including electricity, transport, heating, losses etc.) is much larger — roughly 17 × 10⁴ TWh in 2023 (≈ 620 exajoules), which is about 170,000 TWh/year. 

So the human-body “power plant” output (≈ 5,600 TWh/year) is: Only about 20 % of the world’s electricity usage and only about 3-4 % of global primary energy consumption.

This highlights how small metabolic output is relative to modern energy demands, even though in aggregate the human body output is non-trivial.


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