Net Energy Analysis: The State of the Art

This book offers a comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in net energy analysis (NEA), bridging gaps in the literature, integrating insights from multiple disciplines, and providing practical tools for future research.

Modern societies are built upon energy and, more precisely, net energy―the energy available after accounting for the energy required to build, operate, and maintain the energy system. NEA provides the science to assess net energy and its implications, often through the concept of energy return on investment (EROI). Over the past five decades, NEA has expanded from early EROI studies into a toolkit spanning process-based accounting, input–output analysis, hybrid methods, and system-wide assessments. This toolkit is increasingly used to evaluate transition pathways, yet the field still lacks a comprehensive synthesis. Net Energy Analysis: The State of the Art brings together leading scholars to clarify the definitions, concepts, metrics, and methods that define contemporary NEA, while also exploring connections with adjacent fields such as evolutionary biology, industrial ecology, and ecological economics. Part I examines different interpretations of NEA, tracing its development from historical foundations to its relevance in financial markets and economics. Part II focuses on converging methodologies, including process-based approaches, input–output analysis, and a taxonomy of net energy metrics. Parts III and IV move into more advanced applications and emerging frontiers, such as system-level EROI estimation and the integration of net energy concepts into integrated assessment models (IAMs), among others.

The book will be a useful resource for students in energy and sustainability, while also offering both new and experienced scholars a concise summary of key debates and the latest cutting-edge contributions relevant to their research.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Louis Delannoy is Researcher at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden. He combines methods derived from social ecological systems and ecological economics to study how crises historically take shape, how they are perceived, and how to respond to them.

David J. Murphy is Professor of Environmental Studies at St. Lawrence University (USA), where he teaches courses in renewable energy and life-cycle assessment and examines the intersections of energy systems, economics, and the environment.