{"id":1473,"date":"2016-07-22T16:08:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T16:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/sussexenergygroup\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2016-07-28T20:54:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T20:54:53","slug":"exergy-economics-workshop-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/sussexenergygroup\/2016\/07\/22\/exergy-economics-workshop-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Exergy Economics Workshop 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 40 economists, engineers and social scientists converged last week on the sunny University of Sussex campus for the second International Exergy Economics Workshop<\/a>. Organised by the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand (CIED)<\/a> and the Centre on Industrial Energy, Materials and Products (CIE-MAP)<\/a>, the workshop was a chance for researchers to come together to share knowledge, discuss progress, and initiate future research collaborations in exergy economics.<\/p>\n

Exergy economics is a nascent and heterodox approach to studying energy use within the economy. It is differentiated from conventional energy economics in its use of useful exergy<\/em> as a measure of the quantity of energy flows, as opposed to the more conventional indicators of primary or final energy.<\/p>\n

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Participants who took part in the Exergy Economics workshop 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n

But what is useful exergy? For an in-depth explanation, see the exergy economics website<\/a>. In brief, exergy is a measure of the ability of an energy flow to perform physical work<\/em>, a form of energy which is of a very high thermodynamic quality<\/em>. Thermal energy \u2013 heat \u2013 is of an intrinsically low quality, in the sense that it cannot be fully converted to other energy forms, such as electricity. Whereas energy cannot be created nor destroyed \u2013 merely converted from one form to another \u2013 exergy can, and is, dissipated (destroyed) in every real conversion process. Simply adding together thermal and kinetic (motion) energy on a like-for-like basis is equivalent to adding apples and oranges. This fact has implications for the consistency of macro-level economic studies on energy use.<\/p>\n

As an example, consider a can of kerosene within an insulated room. When burned, this slightly raises the room temperature, although the total amount of energy in the room is conserved. The quality of the energy, however, has diminished. In the form of heat it is less able to perform physical tasks (such as moving a car) than the initial chemical energy in the fuel. This is because the exergy which was initially present has largely been destroyed.<\/p>\n

The second distinct aspect of exergy economics is that rather than the primary or final stages of the energy chain, it is the useful <\/em>stage \u2013 the output of end-use conversion devices such as cars, furnaces or space heaters, for example \u2013 that is focused upon; hence the term useful exergy<\/em>. Although it\u2019s more difficult to estimate the useful energy (or exergy) output of these devices at the national level, it is useful exergy that is required to fulfil the need for society\u2019s energy services<\/em> (personal and freight mobility, illumination, thermal comfort, etc).<\/p>\n

Whilst the burgeoning exergy economics literature is complementary<\/em> to more conventional energy economics, it can potentially provide interesting new insights. In particular, evidence has emerged suggesting that useful exergy consumption provides a much larger contribution to growth<\/a> in economic output than is implied by its small<\/a> \u201ccost share<\/a>\u201d (i.e. the share of national accounts representing payments to the energy sector). This possibility raises implications for the feasibility of easily achieving decoupling<\/a> of energy consumption from economic growth, and in turn the ability to achieve carbon reduction commitments alongside continued growth in output.<\/p>\n

The two-day workshop was organised as a means for showcasing the progress in, and raising the profile of, exergy economics. Attendees were encouraged to critically reflect upon the framework and answer the following questions:<\/p>\n

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  1. What are the strengths, weaknesses and state-of-the-art in exergy economics research?<\/li>\n
  2. What are the conflicts and synergies between exergy economics and mainstream economics?<\/li>\n
  3. What are the contributions of exergy economics to climate change and sustainability analysis?<\/li>\n
  4. What are the potential policy implications of this work?<\/li>\n
  5. Which future research directions in the area appear most promising?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To answer these questions, the workshop incorporated a number of parallel sessions, as well as more reflective breakout groups, facilitating numerous interesting discussions and insights. Attendees were challenged to define new areas of research, and many productive research collaborations are likely to emerge from it. A number of general themes emerged:<\/p>\n