Emergy in 60 Minutes

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Emergy in 60 Minutes

• Everything you didnt know you wanted to know
  about emergy and didnt know to ask.

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Information Transfer Goals(aka presentation
outline)

• Basic definitions and semantics
• Top 10 Things You Need to Know
• Emergy applications

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E M ERGY
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What is EMERGY?

• EMergy is NOT energy misspelled!

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What is EMERGY?

• Emergy is a tool, an assessor
• Some metaphors (transfer functions)
• pH is the negative log of the number of H ions
• Dow Jones average is a measure of market activity
• GNP is a measure of economic exchange
• Trophic state indices measure productivity

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What is EMERGY?

• Based on the laws of physics and thermodynamics
• Applies energy systems principles
• All goods, services and information (either
  environmental, economic or cultural) put into a
  common unit of measure

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What is EMERGY?

• Emergy is the available energy of any kind
  previously used both directly and indirectly to
  make another form of energy, product or service.
• Emergy might be thought of as energy memory.

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What is EMERGY?
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What is EMERGY?

• Its unit is the emjoule
• In this global system, use the solar emjoule
  (sej).

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Transformations Concentration
1E10 sej/t
1E10 sej/t
1E10 sej/t
1E10 sej/t
Sun
1E10
1E7
1E5
1E4
J/t
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Emergy Ratios

• Emergy per Unit Ratios
• Transformities The ratio of emergy inputs to
  energy output sej/J (solar emjoules per joule)
• Emergy per mass the ratio of emergy inputs to
  mass output sej/g (solar emjoules per gram)

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Transformities
Solar emergy (sej/t) Energy J/t)
1E10 1E10 1E10
1E10 1E10 1E7
1E5 1E4
Energy Transfers Joules/time
1E10
1E7
1E5
1E4
1E6
1E5
Transformity Solar emJoules/Joule
1E3
1
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Transformities

• The energy along any pathway can be quantified
• Energy is lost to the system at every transfer
  process
• The ratio of total energy coming into the system
  to the energy leaving any component is a useful
  number known as the emergy per unit ratio.
• If the unit is energy, ratio called transformity

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Emergy Ratios

• Emergy to dollar ratio, em
• important economic interface
• economic activity supported by natural resource
  base
• translate resources used in any year into emergy
• divide by the currency in circulation for that
  year
• direct link between environmental services and
  economic valuation

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Emdollars

• Calculation for US (8 32 23 15) E23 sej/yr
  1.44 E12 sej/
• 
  5.4 E12 /yr

USA Macroeconomic Overview
Fuels Goods Services
Imports
23 Fuel 15 GS
Assets
Non- Renewable

GNP 5.4E12 /yr
Renewable
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Environmental Production
Exports
Economic Production
1992
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Sample Evaluation
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Environmental Economic Inputs
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Backtracking to the Sources
Tides
Geology
P
Rain
Fuels Electricity
Goods Services
Limestone W/Marl
Sun Wind
Acid H2O
Fertilizer Production
Phosphate Rock
Wetlands
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Top 10 Important Emergy Facts

• What it can and cant do
• How it works

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10

• Emergy accounting is an ecological economic
  methodology that quantifies relationships between
  economy, environment and culture using a common
  metric

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10

• Fundamental principle economy, all human
  activity, dependent upon natural resource base
• Fundamental principle all interactions are
  measurable using energy measurement or
  calculation
• Fundamental principle no high level interaction
  can occur without other lower level supporting
  interactions

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9

• Emergy analysis uses an energy systems approach
  
• boundaries are broader and analyses more
  comprehensive, can be used for all scales
• allows pinpointing of inputs that might be
  altered to improve the picture presented by the
  results

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8

• Emergy provides an avenue for quantitatively
  investigating and understanding difficult
  problems in human perception such as the
  aesthetic and symbolic values held by people and
  that influence willingness to pay

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8

• Emergy, as an established methodology, in mid
  1980s
• In last 15 years, evidence for human perception
  coming close to donor-based valuation with
  growing knowledge or exposure

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7

• Emergy analysis can determine if a resource is
  capable of supporting long term economic growth

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Emergy Applications

• Emergy analysis of shale oil presented in
  testimony before Congress in 1976.
• Findings
• No net emergy in shale oil
• Policy Recommendations
• Congress advised against appropriating funds for
  shale oil

Shale mine Photo Patriot Energy
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6

• Evaluates development alternatives and ranks them
  by greatest benefit/impact.

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6

• Uses systems approach to identify all
  consequences, gains, losses associated with each
  alternative
• Emergy net benefits quantifies differences
• Relative ranks fall out

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5

• Emergy provides a standard for equitable
  exchanges in terms of real wealth

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Price
Money from purchaser
Environmental Product sold
Emergy of product (flow)(unit
emergy) benefit ratio Emergy of money
paid (price)(emergy/currency) to
purchaser
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5

• Different emergy consumption leads to trading
  disparity
• Uses emergy to dollar ratio for each respective
  country

1
8.4E12 sej
Brazil 8.4E12 sej/
Japan 1.5E12 sej/
1
1.5E12 sej
5.61 Japan wins
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5

• More equitable trades

5.60
8.4E12 sej
Brazil 8.4E12 sej/
Japan 1.5E12 sej/
1.01
8.4E12 sej
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4

• Uses quantified magnitude of difference (6) and
  equity of exchange (5) at different scales of
  perspective to demonstrate who benefits and who
  does not from development projects

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Emergy Applications

• Findings
• More emergy goes to developed nations in
  Ecuadors shrimp than is received in return
• Emergy benefit to shrimp farmers
• Emergy deficit for local economies and Ecuador
• Policy recommendations
• Less intensive culture
• Restore mangroves
• Promote alternative development

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3

• Transformities and other unit emergy ratios tell
  you where things belong, and where they dont

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3

• works well in process at same point in hierarchy
• disrupts natural organization and process when
  out of place in hierarchy
• self-organizes to maximize output relative to
  higher emergy input

Agriculture Pesticides Fertilizer
1E6-1E9 sej/J
Creeks Lakes Estuaries
Territory of Influence
1E4 sej/J
Transformity
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2

• Emergy flows do not inform us about good or bad,
  but will tell us what systems will prevail under
  different resource availability scenarios

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2

• Maximum power principle
• system that maximizes its ability to use energy
  inputs will prevail
• dependent upon energy available
• not necessarily maximum input (optimum loading
  example 62)
• Comparing emergy required to energy and emergy
  available gives an indication of sustainability

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1

• Measures real wealth embodied in an economic or
  environmental product
• Real wealth is what an environmental product or
  service provides when used for its intended
  purpose within a system

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1

• The same car traveling on a gallon of gas will
  only drive so far regardless of how much the gas
  costs
• This ability to do work is its real value

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In Conclusion

• Emergy is a new tool, not a new science
• Allows direct comparison of typically disparate
  functions
• Emergy overcomes deficits in economic analysis by
  including externalities
• Does not reach same conclusions as economic
  evaluations
• Bridges the gap between environmental and social
  sciences