Sousa, T, Brockway, PE orcid.org/0000-0001-6925-8040, Cullen, JM et al. (4 more authors) (2017) The Need for Robust, Consistent Methods in Societal Exergy Accounting. Ecological Economics, 141. pp. 11-21. ISSN 1873-6106
Abstract
Studies of societal exergy use have the common aim of tracing the flow of exergy along society, and are used to gain insights into the efficiency of energy use and linkages to economic growth. However, their methodological approaches vary greatly, with significant impacts on results. Therefore, we make a review of past studies to identify, synthesize and discuss methodological differences, to contribute to a more consistent and robust approach to societal exergy accounting. Issues that should be taken into account when making methodological options are discussed and key insights are presented: (1) For mapping of primary inputs and useful exergy categories, the inclusion of all natural resources is more consistent but it has the cost of not being able to distinguish the various energy end-uses in the production of materials. (2) To estimate primary electricity, none of the methods currently used is able to capture simultaneously the efficiency of the renewable energy sector, the environmental impact and the efficiency of energy use in society. (3) To estimate final-to-useful exergy conversion efficiencies, standard thermodynamic definitions should be used because the use of proxies fails to distinguish between increases in exergy efficiency and increases in the efficiency of providing energy services.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Energy efficiency; Exergy Accounting; Energy end-uses; Societal exergy metabolism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 May 2017 12:41 |
Last Modified: | 25 May 2017 12:41 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.05.020 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:116901 |