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172 comments on Should EROEI be the most important criterion our society uses to decide how it meets its energy needs?

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PaulusP on August 20, 2008 - 8:35am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"e.g. if oil is used to generate liquid fuel (e.g. bioethanol) then clearly it needs to be an input wheras a renewable such as wind or solar presumably wouldn't"

As you count the FF used to generate bioethanol, one should also count the FF used to produce solar panels or windturbines. Why wouldn't you??

And indeed ALL nonrenewable inputs need to end on de debit side.

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jokuhl on August 20, 2008 - 9:24am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

It seems that he means the Sunlight and Wind Energy ITSELF does not get counted as a debited input, which in some of these arguments people have insisted should it be. Clearly, one would only debit energy sources that are coming from our own inventory, so to speak.

So if for example you have electrical energy coming FROM a solar installation, and were using that power to create a fuel or another energy source, that would count as an energy cost against this other fuel being produced, but the sunlight that was a 'free' input for that providing PV or CSP installation is not a debit against that power plant, only the energies YOU had to provide or pay for to bring the plant online.

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172 comments on Should EROEI be the most important criterion our society uses to decide how it meets its energy needs?

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