IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v98y2018icp328-345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy Ratio analysis and accounting for renewable and non-renewable electricity generation: A review

Author

Listed:
  • Walmsley, Timothy G.
  • Walmsley, Michael R.W.
  • Varbanov, Petar S.
  • Klemeš, Jiří J.

Abstract

This review collates energy assessment data for the most common electricity generation methods and evaluates five Energy Ratios. The considered ratios are Energy Return on Investment (EROI) – standard and external, Energy Payback Time (EPT), Primary Energy Factor (PEF), and Resource Utilisation Factor (RUF). A common energy analysis framework, together with three energy accounting methods based on energy value, exergy, and primary energy, are described. The concept of the time-value for energy as an analogy to the time-value for money is proposed and has a significant impact on the calculated Energy Ratios. In total, this review brings together data for 45 electricity generation projects. Based on the Energy Return on Investment (external), the generation methods fall into three tiers: (1) nuclear, natural gas combined cycle, and geothermal (in New Zealand) with ratios > 30, (2) hydro, wind, and geothermal (in Iceland) with ratios between 5–30, and (3) solar PV with ratios less than 5. High Energy Return on Investment ratios correspond to short Energy Payback Times and vice versa. Energy Ratio performance levels for renewable energy generation sources – hydro, wind, geothermal and solar – heavily rely on the quality of the primary natural resource available. This review recommends Energy Return on Investment (external) and Resource Utilisation Factor as the most useful metrics for inclusion in full sustainability assessment.

Suggested Citation

  • Walmsley, Timothy G. & Walmsley, Michael R.W. & Varbanov, Petar S. & Klemeš, Jiří J., 2018. "Energy Ratio analysis and accounting for renewable and non-renewable electricity generation: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 328-345.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:98:y:2018:i:c:p:328-345
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.09.034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032118306774
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2018.09.034?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ferroni, Ferruccio & Hopkirk, Robert J., 2016. "Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 336-344.
    2. Ajay K. Gupta & Charles A.S. Hall, 2011. "A Review of the Past and Current State of EROI Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(10), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Court, Victor & Fizaine, Florian, 2017. "Long-Term Estimates of the Energy-Return-on-Investment (EROI) of Coal, Oil, and Gas Global Productions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 145-159.
    4. Lambert, Jessica G. & Hall, Charles A.S. & Balogh, Stephen & Gupta, Ajay & Arnold, Michelle, 2014. "Energy, EROI and quality of life," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 153-167.
    5. Kubiszewski, Ida & Cleveland, Cutler J. & Endres, Peter K., 2010. "Meta-analysis of net energy return for wind power systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 218-225.
    6. Kittner, Noah & Gheewala, Shabbir H. & Kammen, Daniel M., 2016. "Energy return on investment (EROI) of mini-hydro and solar PV systems designed for a mini-grid," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 410-419.
    7. Atlason, R.S. & Unnthorsson, R., 2014. "Energy return on investment of hydroelectric power generation calculated using a standardised methodology," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 364-370.
    8. Weißbach, D. & Ruprecht, G. & Huke, A. & Czerski, K. & Gottlieb, S. & Hussein, A., 2013. "Energy intensities, EROIs (energy returned on invested), and energy payback times of electricity generating power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 210-221.
    9. Arvesen, Anders & Hertwich, Edgar G., 2015. "More caution is needed when using life cycle assessment to determine energy return on investment (EROI)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-6.
    10. Pickard, William F., 2017. "A simple lower bound on the EROI of photovoltaic electricity generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 488-490.
    11. Hall, Charles A.S. & Lambert, Jessica G. & Balogh, Stephen B., 2014. "EROI of different fuels and the implications for society," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 141-152.
    12. Zhang, Yongli & Colosi, Lisa M., 2013. "Practical ambiguities during calculation of energy ratios and their impacts on life cycle assessment calculations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 630-633.
    13. Raugei, Marco & Fullana-i-Palmer, Pere & Fthenakis, Vasilis, 2012. "The energy return on energy investment (EROI) of photovoltaics: Methodology and comparisons with fossil fuel life cycles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 576-582.
    14. Tan, Raymond R. & Foo, Dominic C.Y., 2007. "Pinch analysis approach to carbon-constrained energy sector planning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1422-1429.
    15. Raugei, Marco & Sgouridis, Sgouris & Murphy, David & Fthenakis, Vasilis & Frischknecht, Rolf & Breyer, Christian & Bardi, Ugo & Barnhart, Charles & Buckley, Alastair & Carbajales-Dale, Michael & Csala, 2017. "Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation: A comprehensive response," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 377-384.
    16. Heun, Matthew Kuperus & de Wit, Martin, 2012. "Energy return on (energy) invested (EROI), oil prices, and energy transitions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 147-158.
    17. Graham Palmer, 2017. "A Framework for Incorporating EROI into Electrical Storage," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Ferroni, Ferruccio & Guekos, Alexandros & Hopkirk, Robert J., 2017. "Further considerations to: Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 498-505.
    19. Bhandari, Khagendra P. & Collier, Jennifer M. & Ellingson, Randy J. & Apul, Defne S., 2015. "Energy payback time (EPBT) and energy return on energy invested (EROI) of solar photovoltaic systems: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 133-141.
    20. Walmsley, Michael R.W. & Walmsley, Timothy G. & Atkins, Martin J., 2015. "Achieving 33% renewable electricity generation by 2020 in California," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(P3), pages 260-269.
    21. Walmsley, Michael R.W. & Walmsley, Timothy G. & Atkins, Martin J. & Kamp, Peter J.J. & Neale, James R., 2014. "Minimising carbon emissions and energy expended for electricity generation in New Zealand through to 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 656-665.
    22. Narula, Kapil & Reddy, B. Sudhakara, 2016. "A SES (sustainable energy security) index for developing countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 326-343.
    23. Coughlin, Katie, 2012. "A mathematical analysis of full fuel cycle energy use," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 698-708.
    24. Unknown, 2016. "Energy for Sustainable Development," Conference Proceedings 253270, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies (IDSAsr).
    25. Peng, Jinqing & Lu, Lin & Yang, Hongxing, 2013. "Review on life cycle assessment of energy payback and greenhouse gas emission of solar photovoltaic systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 255-274.
    26. Court, Victor & Fizaine, Florian, 2017. "Long-Term Estimates of the Energy-Return-on-Investment (EROI) of Coal, Oil, and Gas Global Productions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 145-159.
    27. Koppelaar, R.H.E.M., 2017. "Solar-PV energy payback and net energy: Meta-assessment of study quality, reproducibility, and results harmonization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1241-1255.
    28. Elibol, Erdem & Özmen, Özge Tüzün & Tutkun, Nedim & Köysal, Oğuz, 2017. "Outdoor performance analysis of different PV panel types," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 651-661.
    29. Adam R. Brandt & Michael Dale, 2011. "A General Mathematical Framework for Calculating Systems-Scale Efficiency of Energy Extraction and Conversion: Energy Return on Investment (EROI) and Other Energy Return Ratios," Energies, MDPI, vol. 4(8), pages 1-35, August.
    30. Atlason, R.S. & Unnthorsson, R., 2013. "Hot water production improves the energy return on investment of geothermal power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 273-280.
    31. Chen, Yingchao & Feng, Lianyong & Wang, Jianliang & Höök, Mikael, 2017. "Emergy-based energy return on investment method for evaluating energy exploitation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 540-549.
    32. Walmsley, Michael R.W. & Walmsley, Timothy G. & Atkins, Martin J. & Kamp, Peter J.J. & Neale, James R. & Chand, Alvin, 2015. "Carbon Emissions Pinch Analysis for emissions reductions in the New Zealand transport sector through to 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(P3), pages 569-576.
    33. Staffell, Iain & Green, Richard, 2014. "How does wind farm performance decline with age?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 775-786.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Leonardo Rana & Mariarosaria Lombardi & Pasquale Giungato & Caterina Tricase, 2020. "Trends in Scientific Literature on Energy Return Ratio of Renewable Energy Sources for Supporting Policymakers," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Zima, Wiesław & Cisek, Piotr & Cebula, Artur, 2021. "Mathematical model of an innovative double U-tube sun-tracked PTC and its experimental verification," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    3. Chong, Cheng Tung & Fan, Yee Van & Lee, Chew Tin & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír, 2022. "Post COVID-19 ENERGY sustainability and carbon emissions neutrality," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    4. Hong, Sanghyun & Kim, Eunsung & Jeong, Saerok, 2023. "Evaluating the sustainability of the hydrogen economy using multi-criteria decision-making analysis in Korea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 485-492.
    5. Walmsley, Timothy Gordon & Ong, Benjamin H.Y. & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Tan, Raymond R. & Varbanov, Petar Sabev, 2019. "Circular Integration of processes, industries, and economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 507-515.
    6. Isik, Mine & Ari, Izzet & Sarica, Kemal, 2021. "Challenges in the CO2 emissions of the Turkish power sector: Evidence from a two-level decomposition approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Wiraditma Prananta & Ida Kubiszewski, 2021. "Assessment of Indonesia’s Future Renewable Energy Plan: A Meta-Analysis of Biofuel Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-15, May.
    8. Hamels, Sam & Himpe, Eline & Laverge, Jelle & Delghust, Marc & Van den Brande, Kjartan & Janssens, Arnold & Albrecht, Johan, 2021. "The use of primary energy factors and CO2 intensities for electricity in the European context - A systematic methodological review and critical evaluation of the contemporary literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    9. Gaigalis, Vygandas & Katinas, Vladislovas, 2020. "Analysis of the renewable energy implementation and prediction prospects in compliance with the EU policy: A case of Lithuania," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1016-1027.
    10. Moussavi, S. & Barutha, P. & Dvorak, B., 2023. "Environmental life cycle assessment of a novel offshore wind energy design project: A United States based case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    11. Aristotle T. Ubando & Isidro Antonio V. Marfori & Kathleen B. Aviso & Raymond R. Tan, 2019. "Optimal Operational Adjustment of a Community-Based Off-Grid Polygeneration Plant using a Fuzzy Mixed Integer Linear Programming Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Walmsley, Timothy Gordon & Philipp, Matthias & Picón-Núñez, Martín & Meschede, Henning & Taylor, Matthew Thomas & Schlosser, Florian & Atkins, Martin John, 2023. "Hybrid renewable energy utility systems for industrial sites: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John W. Day & Christopher F. D’Elia & Adrian R. H. Wiegman & Jeffrey S. Rutherford & Charles A. S. Hall & Robert R. Lane & David E. Dismukes, 2018. "The Energy Pillars of Society: Perverse Interactions of Human Resource Use, the Economy, and Environmental Degradation," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Carlos de Castro & Iñigo Capellán-Pérez, 2020. "Standard, Point of Use, and Extended Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI) from Comprehensive Material Requirements of Present Global Wind, Solar, and Hydro Power Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-43, June.
    3. Buus, Tomáš, 2017. "Energy efficiency and energy prices: A general mathematical framework," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 743-754.
    4. Roberto Leonardo Rana & Mariarosaria Lombardi & Pasquale Giungato & Caterina Tricase, 2020. "Trends in Scientific Literature on Energy Return Ratio of Renewable Energy Sources for Supporting Policymakers," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Marco Vittorio Ecclesia & João Santos & Paul E. Brockway & Tiago Domingos, 2022. "A Comprehensive Societal Energy Return on Investment Study of Portugal Reveals a Low but Stable Value," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Adrien Fabre, 2018. "Evolution of EROIs of Electricity Until 2050: Estimation Using the Input-Output Model THEMIS," Policy Papers 2018.09, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    7. David J. Murphy & Marco Raugei & Michael Carbajales-Dale & Brenda Rubio Estrada, 2022. "Energy Return on Investment of Major Energy Carriers: Review and Harmonization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, June.
    8. Kis, Zoltán & Pandya, Nikul & Koppelaar, Rembrandt H.E.M., 2018. "Electricity generation technologies: Comparison of materials use, energy return on investment, jobs creation and CO2 emissions reduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 144-157.
    9. Jackson, Andrew & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Modelling energy transition risk: The impact of declining energy return on investment (EROI)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    10. Carlos Castro & Iñigo Capellán-Pérez, 2018. "Concentrated Solar Power: Actual Performance and Foreseeable Future in High Penetration Scenarios of Renewable Energies," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-20, September.
    11. Fizaine, Florian & Court, Victor, 2015. "Renewable electricity producing technologies and metal depletion: A sensitivity analysis using the EROI," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 106-118.
    12. Liu, Feng & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2020. "Differences in CO2 emissions of solar PV production among technologies and regions: Application to China, EU and USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    13. Atlason, Reynir Smari, 2018. "EROI and the Icelandic society," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 52-57.
    14. Dupont, Elise & Koppelaar, Rembrandt & Jeanmart, Hervé, 2018. "Global available wind energy with physical and energy return on investment constraints," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 322-338.
    15. Lina I. Brand-Correa & Paul E. Brockway & Claire L. Copeland & Timothy J. Foxon & Anne Owen & Peter G. Taylor, 2017. "Developing an Input-Output Based Method to Estimate a National-Level Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    16. Palmer, Graham, 2017. "An input-output based net-energy assessment of an electricity supply industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1504-1516.
    17. Hongshuo Yan & Lianyong Feng & Jianliang Wang & Yuanying Chi & Yue Ma, 2021. "A Comprehensive Net Energy Analysis and Outlook of Energy System in China," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Salehi, Mohammad & Khajehpour, Hossein & Saboohi, Yadollah, 2020. "Extended Energy Return on Investment of multiproduct energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    19. Delannoy, Louis & Longaretti, Pierre-Yves & Murphy, David J. & Prados, Emmanuel, 2021. "Peak oil and the low-carbon energy transition: A net-energy perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    20. Patrick Moriarty & Damon Honnery, 2020. "Feasibility of a 100% Global Renewable Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-16, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:98:y:2018:i:c:p:328-345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.