Eroei Solar Panels

Abstract a recent paper by ferroni and hopkirk 2016 asserts that the eroei also referred to as eroi of photovoltaic pv systems is so low that they actually act as net energy sinks rather than delivering energy to society.

Eroei solar panels. Eroei calculations for solar pv are misleading. If we do that we find that for instance photovoltaics has an eroei around 10. In fact many readers seem to think of course eroei is what we should be looking at when comparing different types of energy. Actually solar energy has superb energy return on energy investment eroei 1 to 4 years according to the us national renewable energy lab or 1 to 2 5 years in europe.

Not bad but not as large as crude oil in the good old days. When the eroei of a source of energy is less than or equal to one that energy source becomes a net energy sink and can no longer be used as a source of energy but depending on the system might be useful for energy storage. Wind energy does better than that with an average eroei around 20. The energy return on energy invested eroei or eroi of any energy gathering system is a measure of that system s efficiency.

Such claim if accurate would call into question many energy investment decisions. The availability and quality of various energy and material resources to a society is linked to the general trend of the settlement growth and eventual decline experienced by each civilization white 1959 tainter 1988 a society must have an energy surplus for there. The concept was originally derived in ecology and has been transferred to analyse human industrial society. That should be obvious increasing efficiency and lower energy costs per watt make it so.

Posted on december 21 2016 by gail tverberg. Energy has played a critical role throughout human society s demographic economic and social development. If the amount of energy produced relative to the amount of energy utilized in producing that energy tends to decline at some point as the ratio approaches 1 0 or perhaps even becomes a fraction less than 1 0 there is little if any return on the energy invested and society will collapse. A related measure energy stored on energy invested is used to analyse storage systems.

The energy returned on energy invested eroei concept is very frequently used in energy studies. Studies have given figures for the eroi of solar energy as low as 3 9 and as high as 45 45. That s why we should compare what s comparable. If we used only the estimates from 2010 on we d find an eroi for poly si solar of around 15.

The lowest estimate produced by weissbach et al was thoroughly discredited by technology entrepreneur ramez naam as glaringly low and he estimates the eroi of solar pv at above 10 and probably above 15 and rising. Eroei usable acquired energy energy expended it seems so simple. In today s energy mix hydroelectric power nuclear power have values 50.