The Maximum Power Principle
Lotka and Odum In 1922, Lotka proposed a ‘law of maximum energy’ for biological systems. He reasoned that what was most important to the survival of an organism was a large energetic output in the form of growth, reproduction, and maintenance. Organisms with a high...
read moreThe EROI energy multiplier hypothesis
A common narrative in EROI discourse is the energy multiplier hypothesis. The reasoning is that it doesn’t matter what the EROI is, providing it’s greater than unity. From this reasoning, it follows that even very low EROI’s (say 1.2:1) aren’t a problem because you...
read moreCost-constrained versus EROI-constrained electricity generation
One of the challenges for EROI researchers is explaining in simple terms why EROI matters. I’m planning on doing a series of short posts exploring the relevance of EROI. This first post simply makes the observation that embodied energy (the reciprocal of EROI), and...
read moreEnergetic Implications of a Post-industrial Information Economy
The decoupling of energy and resources from economic growth is the Holy Grail of sustainable development. The observation that there seems to be a concentration of wealth in Australian localities associated with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services,...
read moreWhat does the loss of Hazelwood mean for reliability
Fairfax reported that "Victoria is facing an unprecedented 72 days of possible power supply shortfalls over the next two years following the shutdown of the Hazelwood plant next week." This was picked up by other media but a little more sense was injected by Giles...
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A biophysical perspective of IPCC integrated models https://t.co/enzmDQT693 via @georgejetson762