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The lowest priority under the energy hierarchy is energy production using unsustainables sources, such as unabated fossil fuels. Some also place nuclear energy in this category, rather than the one above, because of the required management/storage of highly hazardous radioactive waste over extremely long (hundreds of thousands of years or more ...
Many sources of energy, such as fission, solar, wind, and coal, are not subject to the same near-term supply restrictions that oil is. Accordingly, even an oil source with an EROEI of 0.5 can be usefully exploited if the energy required to produce that oil comes from a cheap and plentiful energy source.
Although the life cycle assessments of each energy source should attempt to cover the full life cycle of the source from cradle-to-grave, they are generally limited to the construction and operation phase. The most rigorously studied phases are those of material and fuel mining, construction, operation, and waste management.
Indexing and marketing intelligence firm Alerian has put together a list of key criteria investors can use to evaluate companies working within the energy infrastructure sector.
Energy quality is a measure of the ease with which a form of energy can be converted to useful work or to another form of energy: i.e. its content of thermodynamic free energy. A high quality form of energy has a high content of thermodynamic free energy, and therefore a high proportion of it can be converted to work; whereas with low quality ...
Alternatives assessment or alternatives analysis is a problem-solving approach used in environmental design, technology, and policy.It aims to minimize environmental harm by comparing multiple potential solutions in the context of a specific problem, design goal, or policy objective.
The term energy audit is commonly used to describe a broad spectrum of energy studies ranging from a quick walk-through of a facility to identify major problem areas to a comprehensive analysis of the implications of alternative energy efficiency measures sufficient to satisfy the financial criteria of sophisticated investors.
Renewable energy sources are essential to sustainable energy, as they generally strengthen energy security and emit far fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. [49] Renewable energy projects sometimes raise significant sustainability concerns, such as risks to biodiversity when areas of high ecological value are converted to bioenergy ...