Dr. Conca reports that the Energy Returned on Investment, or EROI, demonstrates the advantages, as well as the investment needed, to exploit energy sources. It is the ratio of energy returned to energy invested in that energy source, along its entire life-cycle. When the number is large, energy from that source is easy to get and cheap. However, when the number is small, the energy from that source is difficult to get and expensive. The break-even number for fueling modern society is about 7. EROI was evaluated for power plants fueled by wind, photovoltaic solar, solar thermal, hydroelectric, natural gas, biomass, coal and nuclear.
The working EROI for each of the various energy source is - Nuclear 75, Hydro 35, Coal 30, Closed-Cycle Gas Turbine 28, Solar Thermal 9, Wind 4, Biomass 4, and Solar PV 2. (rooftop solar is an exception).
It is clear that a future mix without nuclear cannot sustain modern society without a lot of fossil fuel.
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Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-