The importance of: energy returned on energy invested, or EROEI.
The importance of: energy returned on energy invested, or EROEI.
This easy to read & not that long article by @richardheinberg on how Energy Resources & Climate Change are & will affect our future contains wisdom & insight that everyone should have access to. Highly Recommended. #FT
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/2362632-paul-krugman-s-errors-and-omissions
Example: Most people have no idea about EROEI.
I didn't until I read articles by Heinberg (an ecologist & author) & others involved in the #peakoil & climate change communities over the last decade or so.
It's so fundamental a concept yet rarely discussed or factored in to articles & policies on climate & economics - especially overlooked by economists it seems!
From the article:
"... energy returned on energy invested, or EROEI. It takes energy to get energy, but historically fossil fuels delivered an immense profit on the meager investments of energy required to drill or mine for them. The EROEI figures for renewables are generally lower than current ones for fossil fuels. And energy returns for fossil fuels are declining as companies are forced to dig deeper and deploy more sophisticated (read: expensive) technology to get at lower-grade resources. The overall EROEI of society is falling, and the transition to renewables will not halt that process (though it will lead to an eventual leveling-off). If you think long and hard about what declining EROEI actually means for our civilization, it’s difficult to imagine an outcome that could be characterized as economic growth—at least, growth as we’ve known it for the past century."
Also key once we understand the importance of EROEI.
The rapid build-out of renewables constitutes an enormous infrastructure project that will itself consume significant amounts of fossil-fuel energy. New solar panels won’t immediately pay for themselves in energy terms; indeed, research at Stanford University recently showed that all solar PV technology installed until about 2010 was a net energy sink. It will fully “pay back the electrical energy required for its early growth by about 2020,”
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/2362632-paul-krugman-s-errors-and-omissions
This easy to read & not that long article by @richardheinberg on how Energy Resources & Climate Change are & will affect our future contains wisdom & insight that everyone should have access to. Highly Recommended. #FT
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/2362632-paul-krugman-s-errors-and-omissions
Example: Most people have no idea about EROEI.
I didn't until I read articles by Heinberg (an ecologist & author) & others involved in the #peakoil & climate change communities over the last decade or so.
It's so fundamental a concept yet rarely discussed or factored in to articles & policies on climate & economics - especially overlooked by economists it seems!
From the article:
"... energy returned on energy invested, or EROEI. It takes energy to get energy, but historically fossil fuels delivered an immense profit on the meager investments of energy required to drill or mine for them. The EROEI figures for renewables are generally lower than current ones for fossil fuels. And energy returns for fossil fuels are declining as companies are forced to dig deeper and deploy more sophisticated (read: expensive) technology to get at lower-grade resources. The overall EROEI of society is falling, and the transition to renewables will not halt that process (though it will lead to an eventual leveling-off). If you think long and hard about what declining EROEI actually means for our civilization, it’s difficult to imagine an outcome that could be characterized as economic growth—at least, growth as we’ve known it for the past century."
Also key once we understand the importance of EROEI.
The rapid build-out of renewables constitutes an enormous infrastructure project that will itself consume significant amounts of fossil-fuel energy. New solar panels won’t immediately pay for themselves in energy terms; indeed, research at Stanford University recently showed that all solar PV technology installed until about 2010 was a net energy sink. It will fully “pay back the electrical energy required for its early growth by about 2020,”
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/2362632-paul-krugman-s-errors-and-omissions
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