Submit to Energies Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2022) | Viewed by 37204

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Damon Honnery

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne VIC 3145, Australia
Interests: combustion; energy analysis; renewable energy; global warming mitigation

Prof. Dr. Patrick Moriarty

E-Mail
Guest Editor

Department of Design, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3145, Australia
Interests: energy analysis, renewable energy, global warming mitigation, transport, futures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For the past century or more, fossil fuels have dominated not only energy use, but also the way we think about energy systems. Given the finite reserves of fossil fuels (FFs) and their uneven global distribution, in the 1960s and 1970s, high hopes were placed on nuclear power as a successor fuel, but it is now projected to play only a minor role in future energy. With the rising awareness of the climate change problem, renewable energy (RE) sources are increasingly promoted as a key climate mitigation strategy. However, controversy exists as to whether RE sources have a large enough EROI to replace the still-dominant fossil fuels. Because only intermittent RE sources—wind, solar, and perhaps wave energy—have a high technical potential, large-scale energy storage will be needed, which will reduce the overall EROI. Furthermore, although the environmental problems of FFs have long been recognised, there is now increasing recognition of those for RE, as well as requirements for (often scarce) metals, water, and land. This Special Issue aims to explore the energy future from an Earth systems science viewpoint, thus widening the scope of energy research.

Prof. Dr. Damon Honnery
Prof. Dr. Patrick Moriarty
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Climate change mitigation
Carbon dioxide reduction
Earth systems science (ESS)
Ecosystem maintenance energy (ESME)
Energy return on energy invested (EROI)
Food–energy–water nexus
Fossil fuels Future energy
Geoengineering
Renewable energy

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

13 pages, 1194 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The 50th Anniversary of The Limits to Growth: Does It Have Relevance for Today’s Energy Issues?

by Charles A. S. Hall

Energies 2022, 15(14), 4953; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15144953 - 6 Jul 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3193

Abstract

The Limits to Growth was a remarkable, and remarkably influential, model, book and concept published 50 years ago this year. Its importance is that it used, for essentially the first time, a quantitative systems approach and a computer model to question the dominant paradigm for most of society: growth. Initially, many events, and especially the oil crisis of the 1970s, seemed to support the idea that the limits were close. Many economists argued quite the opposite, and the later relaxation of the oil crisis (and decline in gasoline prices) seemed to support the economists’ position. Many argued that the model had failed, but a careful examination of model behavior vs. global and many national data sets assessed by a number of researchers suggests that the model’s predictions (even if they had not been meant for such a specific task) were still remarkably accurate to date. While the massive changes predicted by the model have not yet come to pass globally, they are clearly occurring for many individual nations. Additionally, global patterns of climate change, fuel and mineral depletion, environmental degradation and population growth are quite as predicted by the original model. Whether or not the world as a whole continues to follow the general patterns of the model may be mostly a function of what happens with energy and whether humans can accept constraints on their propensity to keep growing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 3994 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Renewable Energy Equivalent Footprint (REEF): A Method for Envisioning a Sustainable Energy Future

by James Ward, Steve Mohr, Robert Costanza, Paul Sutton and Luca Coscieme

Energies 2020, 13(23), 6160; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13236160 - 24 Nov 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5881

Abstract

We present an alternative approach to estimating the spatial footprint of energy consumption, as this represents a major fraction of the ecological footprint (EF). Rather than depicting the current lack of sustainability that comes from estimating a footprint based on uptake of carbon emissions (the method used in EF accounting), our proposed “Renewable Energy Equivalent Footprint” (REEF) instead depicts a hypothetical world in which the electricity and fuel demands are met entirely from renewable energy. The analysis shows that current human energy demands could theoretically be met by renewable energy and remain within the biocapacity of one planet. However, with current technology there is no margin to leave any biocapacity for nature, leading to the investigation of two additional scenarios: (1) radical electrification of the energy supply, assuming 75% of final energy demand can be met with electricity, and (2) adopting technology in which electricity is used to convert atmospheric gases into synthetic fuel. The REEF demonstrates that a sustainable and desirable future powered by renewable energy: (i) may be possible, depending on the worldwide adoption of consumption patterns typical of several key exemplar countries; (ii) is highly dependent on major future technological development, namely electrification and synthetic fuels; and (iii) is still likely to require appropriation of a substantial, albeit hopefully sustainable, fraction of the world’s forest area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

43 pages, 1787 KiB

Open AccessArticle

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

by Carlos de Castro and Iñigo Capellán-Pérez

Energies 2020, 13(12), 3036; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13123036 - 12 Jun 2020

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 12144

Abstract

Whether renewable energy sources (RES) will provide sufficient energy surplus to entirely power complex modern societies is under discussion. We contribute to this debate by estimating the current global average energy return on energy invested (EROI) for the five RES technologies with the highest potential of electricity generation from the comprehensive and internally consistent estimations of their material requirements at three distinct energy system boundaries: standard farm-gate (EROI_st), final at consumer point-of-use (EROI_final), and extended (including indirect investments, EROI_ext). EROI_st levels found fall within the respective literature ranges. Expanding the boundaries closer to the system level, we find that only large hydroelectricity would currently have a high EROI_ext ~ 6.5:1, while the rest of variable RES would be below 3:1: onshore wind (2.9:1), offshore wind (2.3:1), solar Photovoltaic (PV) (1.8:1), and solar Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) (<1:1). These results indicate that, very likely, the global average EROI_ext levels of variable RES are currently below those of fossil fuel-fired electricity. It remains unknown if technological improvements will be able to compensate for factors, which will become increasingly important as the variable RES scale-up. Hence, without dynamically accounting for the evolution of the EROI of the system, the viability of sustainable energy systems cannot be ensured, especially for modern societies pursuing continuous economic growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 899 KiB

Open AccessReview

Feasibility of a 100% Global Renewable Energy System

by Patrick Moriarty and Damon Honnery

Energies 2020, 13(21), 5543; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13215543 - 22 Oct 2020

Cited by 47 | Viewed by 8852

Abstract

Controversy exists as to whether renewable energy (RE) can provide for all the world’s energy needs. The purpose of this paper is to help resolve this vital question. Official forecasts see a resumption of a business-as-usual world after the pandemic-induced recession, with further economic growth out to at least 2050. The novel approach taken in this paper is to assume that such a world is fueled entirely with RE at global energy levels at or above those of today, and then to examine whether this scenario is feasible. Because the intermittent primary electricity sources, wind, and solar power, would have to supply nearly all this energy, a simplification made for this analysis is that they do supply 100% of all energy, including non-electrical energy needs. It is found that the energy that could be delivered by these two sources is much less than often assumed, for several reasons: The declining quality of inputs; the need for inclusion of uncounted environmental costs; the need for energy conversion and storage; and the removal of existing fossil fuel energy subsidies. It is concluded that a future world entirely fuelled by RE would necessarily be a lower-energy one. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 561 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Political Economy of Deep Decarbonization: Tradable Energy Quotas for Energy Descent Futures

by Samuel Alexander and Joshua Floyd

Energies 2020, 13(17), 4304; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13174304 - 19 Aug 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6404

Abstract

This paper reviews and analyses a decarbonization policy called the Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) system developed by David Fleming. The TEQs system involves rationing fossil fuel energy use for a nation on the basis of either a contracting carbon emission budget or scarce fuel availability, or both simultaneously, distributing budgets equitably amongst energy-users. Entitlements can be traded to incentivize demand reduction and to maximize efficient use of the limited entitlements. We situate this analysis in the context of Joseph Tainter’s theory about the development and collapse of complex societies. Tainter argues that societies become more socio-politically and technologically ‘complex’ as they solve the problems they face and that such complexification drives increased energy use. For a society to sustain itself, therefore, it must secure the energy needed to solve the range of societal problems that emerge. However, what if, as a result of deep decarbonization, there is less energy available in the future not more? We argue that TEQs offers a practical means of managing energy descent futures. The policy can facilitate controlled reduction of socio-political complexity via processes of ‘voluntary simplification’ (the result being ‘degrowth’ or controlled contraction at the scale of the physical economy). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Rethinking Energy: Earth System Science Approaches 2021

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (5 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI