what is the minimum eroi that a sustainable society must have最低eroi,必须有一个可持续发展的社会.pdfVIP

Energies 2009, 2, 25-47; doi:10.3390/e OPEN ACCESS  energies ISSN 1996-1073 /journal/energies Review What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have? * Charles A. S. Hall , Stephen Balogh and David J. R. Murphy Program in Environmental Science, State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse NY, 13210, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: chall@ Received: 12 December 2008; in revised form: 10 January 2009 / Accepted: 13 January 2009 / Published: 23 January 2009 Abstract: Economic production and, more generally, most global societies, are overwhelmingly dependant upon depleting supplies of fossil fuels. There is considerable concern amongst resource scientists, if not most economists, as to whether market signals or cost benefit analysis based on today’s prices are sufficient to guide our decisions about our energy future. These suspicions and concerns were escalated during the oil price increase from 2005 – 2008 and the subsequent but probably related market collapse of 2008. We believe that Energy Return On Investment (EROI) analysis provides a useful approach for examining disadvantages and advantages of different fuels and also offers the possibility to look into the future in ways that markets seem unable to do. The goal of this paper is to review the application of EROI theory to both nat