The following charts, the first from a 2013 Scientific American article and the second from Wikipedia, are useful context for current debates about fracked shale gas. Energy Return On Investment is a measure of how much energy you get out compared with how much you put in (expend) to get that energy out. Shale gas is obviously going to have lower EROI than shale oil (which is a much more energy-dense fuel). Clearly, some renewable energies are far superior to fossil fuels in this respect, with hydroelectricity and wind being the clear winners on this measure, and even Solar PV being superior to shale oil (and therefore by implication also superior to shale gas). And I'm guessing these data currently exclude the energy expense of any Carbon Capture and Storage processes associated with each fossil fuel, since CCS is neither a mandatory requirement nor widely deployed yet.
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About the BloggerI'm David Calver - an Accountant with a passion for sustainability. Categories
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