Energy in An Apple

The amount of energy that is inherent in an apple truly depends on where it is grown. The transportation and storage of an apple out of season is nearly 3 times as much energy than it is to grow it. We assumed the average weight of an apple is 0.5 pounds. We also assumed that in season you can get an apple grown and transported around 100km away. First, the amount of energy to grow an apple was found. This was found to be approximately 0.5 kWh. Then using data already calculated, we assumed it is 0.8kWh/ton-km to transport an apple. Using these numbers, an apple grown within 100km has 0.54 kWh of inherent energy, while an apple that is out of season, and has to be shipped in uses 1.7kWh. This may not seem like very much but if you increase the amount of apples from one to several million, the number can become rather frightening.



http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~cholette/sustain/SSCpublic/Local_vs._Imported_Apples-case3.pdf