Towards an improved methodology for Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for electricity supply

Towards an improved methodology for Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for electricity supply

Wednesday, 11 April 2018 - 11:00am to 12:00pm

The challenge of decarbonising electricity grids is urgent, but pathways towards decarbonisation are uncertain. Integrated, and energy system optimisation modelling, is used to project future low emission scenarios to provide policy guidance. Cost minimisation is a key objective function. Although economic analyses can identify pathways that are economically infeasible, they cannot identify those that are energetically infeasible. Net-energy analysis (NEA), using the energy return on investment (EROI) metric, has the potential to supplement conventional economic and environmental models by providing an energetic valuation of energy supply. However, a lack of methodological consistency has limited the utility of this approach. This presentation explores the approaches to addressing the methodological inconsistency, and the role of NEA in supporting conventional economic analyses.

Event Location: 
Australian-German Climate and Energy College
Level 1, 187 Grattan Street
3010 Parkville , VIC
Victoria
Videos
Speakers

Graham Palmer is a PhD student at the Australian-German Climate & Energy College. He is an electronic and industrial engineer with a technical, R&D, and management career in small business. He graduated from Monash University with a B.Eng and RMIT University with a M.Eng. His research draws on the field of biophysical economics.

Web tools and Projects we developed

  • Open-NEM

    The live tracker of the Australian electricity market.

  • Paris Equity Check

    This website is based on a Nature Climate Change study that compares Nationally Determined Contributions with equitable national emissions trajectories in line with the five categories of equity outlined by the IPCC.

  • liveMAGICC Climate Model

    Run one of the most popular reduced-complexity climate carbon cycle models online. Used by IPCC, UNEP GAP reports and numerous scientific publications.

  • NDC & INDC Factsheets

    Check out our analysis of all the post-2020 targets that countries announced under the Paris Agreement.