Energy payback for energy systems ensembles during growth

Author

Gutowski, Timothy G. ; Gershwin, Stanley B. ; Bounassisi, Tonio

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

17-19 May 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

During periods of growth, the energy payback performance of new energy generating technologies deviates substantially from the usual static measures of energy return on investment (EROI), and time to breakeven (t_B) for single systems. Here we examine the performance of growing ensembles, develop new measures of dynamic performance, and identify an optimum growth rate (largest value of net energy production) and critical growth rate (rate at which the ensemble generates no new energy). Hence, if ensembles grow too fast they can look like net energy sinks in spite of good (static) single system performance indicators.

Keywords

power generation economics; energy generating technologies; energy payback performance; energy return on investment; energy systems; growing ensembles; Energy management; Energy measurement; Investments; Manufacturing; Mathematical analysis; Mechanical engineering; Photovoltaic cells; Technology management; Time measurement; Wind energy; EROI; Energy payback; energy breakeven; energy ensemble performance; energy growth;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Sustainable Systems and Technology (ISSST), 2010 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Arlington, VA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7094-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISSST.2010.5507729

Filename

5507729