According the Lawrence Livermore National Labs annual US Energy flowchart (flowcharts.llnl.gov/...) since 2000 the USA has produced between 95 and 100 quadrillion btu’s of energy every year.
Of that annual production of 95 to 100 quads, we “reject” more than 60%, mostly as waste heat, and get useful work, or exergy, out of about 40%, or 40 quads.
During that same period, the GDP of the USA increased from $10,284.8 billion in 2000 to $17,348.1 billion 2015, growing by about 70%.
Our energy demand seems to have peaked, we’ve expanded our economy by $7,348.1 billion, and there are still plenty of opportunities for greater energy efficiency gains.
In conversation with one energy expert from Germany, he confirmed my suspicion that energy demand has plateaued there as well. I suspect that after a certain point of industrialization, nations tend to plateau in their energy use and, with the history of energy since the first Oil Shock in 1973, have concentrated more on energy efficiency than energy production while still growing their GDP.
That’s the energy context I see.