Reconciling energy efficiency and energy intensity metrics: an integrated decomposition analysis

Torrie, Ralph D.; Stone, Christopher D.; Layzell, David B.

doi:10.1007/s12053-018-9667-z

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The energy intensity is defined as the energy consumed per unit of production. Energy intensity is inversely related to energy efficiency; the lower the energy required to produce an output or service unit, the greater the energy efficiency [52]. Energy intensity is the most commonly used aggregate indicator of a nation's energy efficiency [27,53].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

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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Section: Methodsmentioning

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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“…Energy intensity is defined as the ratio of primary energy consumed over GDP [195]. It is sometimes taken as an inverse of the energy efficiency, although, as predicted by Jevons, factors that influence energy intensity sometimes offset, or even augment, energy efficiency gains, such as GDP per capita, real prices or the composition of output [196]. Therefore, economic activity is important to understand the growth of CO 2 emissions in economies in which expansions throughout the economic cycle are sustained over energy-intensive sectors.…”

Section: Economic Growth and Energy Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…output [196]. Therefore, economic activity is important to understand the growth of CO2 emissions in economies in which expansions throughout the economic cycle are sustained over energy-intensive sectors.…”

Section: Economic Growth and Energy Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Union Green Deal: Clean Energy Wellbeing Opportunities and the Risk of the Jevons Paradox

2021

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After the Great Recession of 2008, there was a strong commitment from several international institutions and forums to improve wellbeing economics, with a switch towards satisfaction and sustainability in people–planet–profit relations. The initiative of the European Union is the Green Deal, which is similar to the UN SGD agenda for Horizon 2030. It is the common political economy plan for the Multiannual Financial Framework, 2021–2027. This project intends, at the same time, to stop climate change and to promote the people’s wellness within healthy organizations and smart cities with access to cheap and clean energy. However, there is a risk for the success of this aim: the Jevons paradox. In this paper, we make a thorough revision of the literature on the Jevons Paradox, which implies that energy efficiency leads to higher levels of consumption of energy and to a bigger hazard of climate change and environmental degradation.

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“…However, since our formulation of the LMDI identity is conducive to the presence of energy intensity as a contributing factor, the best method to solve the above-mentioned issue is to separate observed physical energy intensity from structural changes affecting the energy intensity. In this sense, following the method proposed by Torrie et al (2018), what we do is to subject the energy intensity factor to further extension or factorization that allows us to identify to what extent the observed physical energy efficiency influences changes in energy intensity, and therefore in CO 2 emissions. This is done by decomposing the energy intensity ratio between (1) consumption per physical unit of output (e.g., energy used per produced car) and (2) the ratio of physical output to the monetary output (e.g., produced cars per monetary value added of those cars).…”

Section: End-use Energy Intensity Versus End-use Energy Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are we moving toward an energy-efficient low-carbon economy? An input–output LMDI decomposition of CO$$_{2}$$ emissions for Spain and the EU28

Serrano-Puente

2021

SERIEs

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Spain is on a path toward the decarbonization of the economy. This is mainly due to structural changes in the economy, where less energy-intensive sectors are gaining more relevance, and due to a higher use of less carbon-intensive primary energy products. This decarbonization trend is in fact more accentuated than that observed in the EU28, but there is still much to be done in order to reverse the huge increases in emissions that occurred in Spain prior to the 2007 crisis. The technical energy efficiency is improving in the Spanish economy at a higher rate than in the EU28, although all these gains are offset by the losses that the country suffers due to the inefficient use of the energy equipment. There is an installed energy infrastructure (in the energy-consumer side) in the Spanish economy that is not working at its maximum rated capacity, but which has very high fixed energy costs that reduce the observed energy efficiency and puts at risk the achievement of the emissions and energy consumption targets set by the European institutions. We arrive to these findings by developing a hybrid decomposition approach called input–output logarithmic mean Divisia index (IO-LMDI) decomposition method. With this methodological approach, we can provide an allocation diagram scheme for assigning the responsibility of primary energy requirements and carbon-dioxide emissions to the end-use sectors, including both economic and non-productive sectors. In addition, we analyze more potential influencing factors than those typically examined, we proceed in a way that reconciles energy intensity and energy efficiency metrics, and we are able to distinguish between technical and observed end-use energy efficiency taking into account potential rebound effects and other factors.

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Reconciling energy efficiency and energy intensity metrics: an integrated decomposition analysis

Cited by 15 publications

References 30 publications

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

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

The European Union Green Deal: Clean Energy Wellbeing Opportunities and the Risk of the Jevons Paradox

Are we moving toward an energy-efficient low-carbon economy? An input–output LMDI decomposition of CO$$_{2}$$ emissions for Spain and the EU28

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