Dynamic Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI) and material requirements in scenarios of global transition to renewable energies

Capellán‐Pérez, Iñigo; Castro, Carlos de; Miguel, Luis

doi:10.1016/j.esr.2019.100399

Cited by 145 publications

(156 citation statements)

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“…The energy penalty in suitably optimised plants, would probably only be of the order of 25%, but because very few existing plants are so optimised, the energy costs for CCS could be appreciably higher. This energy cost will further lower their EROI [20,21]. Other forms of mechanical CDR include negative emissions technologies (NETs) such as direct air capture of CO 2 or enhanced weathering of minerals.…”

Section: Why Do We Need Re?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers have suggested that actual EROI values for RE are lower than 11, and in some cases even lower than 3.0, especially if storage energy costs are incurred [20,81]. The EROI values discussed here are assumed to be the "standard" EROI [21]. A further problem concerns the dynamic energy analysis of the transition from FF to RE sources [21,59,82].…”

Section: Technical Potential For Other Re Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The EROI values discussed here are assumed to be the "standard" EROI [21]. A further problem concerns the dynamic energy analysis of the transition from FF to RE sources [21,59,82]. If RE capacity was to grow rapidly, the input energy for construction could significantly constrain the net energy available to the non-energy sectors of the economy.…”

Section: Technical Potential For Other Re Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energy Accounting for a Renewable Energy Future

Moriarty

Honnery

2019

Energies

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For millennia, humans relied almost entirely on renewable energy (RE), largely biomass, for their energy needs. Over the past century, fossil fuels (FFs) have not only largely replaced RE, but have enabled a many-fold rise in total energy use. This FF dominance changed the way we think about and accounted for energy use. If (as at present) the world essentially continues to ignore climate change, eventual resource depletion will force conversion to RE and, perhaps, nuclear energy will once again have to provide most of the world’s energy use. However, the change is more likely to come about because of the urgent need for climate change mitigation. At present, primary RE electricity accounting is done by calculating the FF energy that would be needed to produce it. But as FFs disappear, this approach makes less sense. Instead, a new approach to energy accounting will be needed, one that allows for the intermittent nature of the two most abundant RE sources, wind and solar power. Surplus intermittent RE might be converted to H2, further complicating energy accounting. An additional complication will be the treatment of energy reductions, especially from passive solar energy, likely to be more important in the coming decades. This paper is a review of the evidence to try to determine the best approach to future energy accounting.

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Section: Why Do We Need Re?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Technical Potential For Other Re Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Technical Potential For Other Re Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energy Accounting for a Renewable Energy Future

Moriarty

Honnery

2019

Energies

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“…The World Health Organization estimates that more than seven million people die every year due to poor air quality, and that three million of those deaths are premature. Several studies have shown that air pollution associated with the production and use of energy directly affects air quality and climate [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The transition to new energy resources and to new energy conversion and storage devices will affect the fraction of energy reinvestment, which could have significant economic impacts [21][22][23][24][25][26]. Those RESs with a higher potential (i.e., wind, and solar) have been generally found to have a lower EROI standard (EROIst) than fossil fuels, especially when incorporating the energy costs of dealing with intermittency [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Trends of the Energy Intensity and CO2 Emissions Related to Final Energy Consumption in Ecuador: Scenarios of National and Worldwide Strategies

Arroyo

Miguel

2019

Sustainability

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Climate change and global warming are related to the demand for energy, energy efficiency, and CO 2 emissions. In this research, in order to project the trends in final energy demand, energy intensity, and CO 2 emission production in Ecuador during a period between 2000 and 2030, a model has been developed based on the dynamics of the systems supported by Vensim simulation models. The energy matrix of Ecuador has changed in recent years, giving more importance to hydropower. It is conclusive that, if industrialized country policies or trends on the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency were applied, the production of CO 2 emissions by 2030 in Ecuador would reach 42,191.4 KTCO 2 , a value well below the 75,182.6 KTCO 2 that would be seen if the current conditions are maintained. In the same way, by 2030, energy intensity would be reduced to 54% compared to the beginning of the simulation period.Between 1750 and 2011, cumulative anthropogenic CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere were 2040 ± 310 GTCO 2 . About 40% of these emissions have remained in the atmosphere (880 ± 35 GTCO 2 ) [5]; the rest have been removed from the atmosphere and stored on land (in plants and soils) and in the ocean. People's life expectancy is threatened by climate change through the limitation of access to water, food, medical care, and land. Therefore, it is important to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and increase the use of renewable energy in order to minimize CO 2 emissions [13].Sustainability of power systems with high renewable energy penetration rates is a topic of major interest, especially when considering the intermittency of renewable energy source (RES) production and the actual growing trend of energy consumption [6]. The transition from fossil fuels to RESs is an indispensable necessity if sustainable socio-economic systems are to be realized. RES variability now represents a major challenge when it comes to upgrading power systems. From a social and economic perspective, the RES share in meeting electricity demand has shown a steady growth [7]. The increasing renewable energy share in electricity generation as a result of several factors such as environmental constraints, technical and economic aspects, or social implications has led to a corresponding reduction in total CO 2 emissions [8].The energy return on investment (EROI) metric includes factors affecting the whole energy system that are not accounted for by the monetary costs of individual power plants (such as additional costs for the system related to distribution, intermittency of RES, etc.) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The transition to new energy resources and to new energy conversion and storage devices will affect the fraction of energy reinvestment, which could have significant economic impacts [21][22][23][24][25][26]. Those RESs with a higher potential (i.e., wind, and solar) have been generally found to have a lower EROI standard (EROIst) than fossil fuels, especially when incorporating the energy costs of dealing with intermittency [9].Energy ...

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Choosing the Right Metric for the Job

Meyer¹

2019

Lecture Notes in Energy

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Dynamic Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI) and material requirements in scenarios of global transition to renewable energies

Cited by 145 publications

References 103 publications

Energy Accounting for a Renewable Energy Future

Energy Accounting for a Renewable Energy Future

The Trends of the Energy Intensity and CO2 Emissions Related to Final Energy Consumption in Ecuador: Scenarios of National and Worldwide Strategies

Choosing the Right Metric for the Job

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