Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation: A comprehensive response

Raugei, Marco; Sgouridis, Sgouris; Murphy, David; Fthenakis, Vasilis; Frischknecht, Rolf; Breyer, Christian; Bardi, Ugo; Barnhart, Charles; Buckley, Alastair; Carbajales-Dale, Michael; Csala, Denes; de Wild-Scholten, Mariska; Heath, Garvin; Jæger-Waldau, Arnulf; Jones, Christopher; Keller, Arthur; Leccisi, Enrica; Mancarella, Pierluigi; Pearsall, Nicola; Siegel, Adam; Sinke, Wim; Stolz, Philippe

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2016.12.042

Title: Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation: A comprehensive response

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Energy Policy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.12.042· OSTI ID:1343085

Raugei, Marco ^[1]; Sgouridis, Sgouris ^[2]; Murphy, David ^[3]; Fthenakis, Vasilis ^[4]; Frischknecht, Rolf ^[5]; Breyer, Christian ^[6]; Bardi, Ugo ^[7]; Barnhart, Charles ^[8]; Buckley, Alastair ^[9]; Carbajales-Dale, Michael ^[10]; Csala, Denes ^[11]; de Wild-Scholten, Mariska ^[12]; Heath, Garvin ^[13]; Jæger-Waldau, Arnulf ^[14]; Jones, Christopher ^[15]; Keller, Arthur ^[16]; Leccisi, Enrica ^[17]; Mancarella, Pierluigi ^[15]; Pearsall, Nicola ^[18]; Siegel, Adam ^[19] more »

Oxford Brookes Univ. (United Kingdom); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
Masdar Inst., Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)
St. Lawrence Univ., Canton, NY (United States)
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Treeze, Uster (Switzerland)
Lappeenranta Univ. of Technology (Finland)
Univ. of Florence (Italy)
Western Washington Univ., Bellingham, WA (United States). Huxley College of the Environment and Inst. for Energy Studies
Univ. of Sheffield (United Kingdom)
Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
Lancaster Univ. (United Kingdom)
SmartGreenScans, Groet (The Netherlands)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Brussels (Belgium)
Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)
Nouvelle Donne, Paris (France)
Parthenope Univ. of Naples (Italy)
Northumbria Univ., Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom)
Insight Through Analysis, Washington, DC (United States)
Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)

A recent paper by Ferroni and Hopkirk (2016) asserts that the ERoEI (also referred to as EROI) of photovoltaic (PV) systems is so low that they actually act as net energy sinks, rather than delivering energy to society. Such claim, if accurate, would call into question many energy investment decisions. In the same paper, a comparison is also drawn between PV and nuclear electricity. We have carefully analysed this paper, and found methodological inconsistencies and calculation errors that, in combination, render its conclusions not scientifically sound. Ferroni and Hopkirk adopt 'extended' boundaries for their analysis of PV without acknowledging that such choice of boundaries makes their results incompatible with those for all other technologies that have been analysed using more conventional boundaries, including nuclear energy with which the authors engage in multiple inconsistent comparisons. In addition, they use out-dated information, make invalid assumptions on PV specifications and other key parameters, and conduct calculation errors, including double counting. Here in this paper, we provide revised EROI calculations for PV electricity in Switzerland, adopting both conventional and 'extended' system boundaries, to contrast with their results, which points to an order-of-magnitude underestimate of the EROI of PV in Switzerland by Ferroni and Hopkirk.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1343085

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-6A20-67901

Journal Information:: Energy Policy, Vol. 102, Issue C; ISSN 0301-4215

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 39 works

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The energetic implications of introducing lithium-ion batteries into distributed photovoltaic systems Davidsson Kurland, Simon; Benson, Sally M. Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Vol. 3, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1039/c9se00127a	journal	January 2019
Comparative net energy analysis of renewable electricity and carbon capture and storage Sgouridis, Sgouris; Carbajales-Dale, Michael; Csala, Denes Nature Energy, Vol. 4, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0365-7	journal	April 2019
Historical and projected improvements in net energy performance of power generation technologies Steffen, Bjarne; Hischier, Dominique; Schmidt, Tobias S. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 11, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ee01231h	journal	January 2018
The Energy Transition in New York: A Greenhouse Gas, Net Energy, and Life‐Cycle Energy Analysis Murphy, David J.; Raugei, Marco Energy Technology, Vol. 8, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201901026	journal	January 2020
A New Approach to Calculating the “Corporate” EROI Celi, Luciano; Della Volpe, Claudio; Pardi, Luca BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality, Vol. 3, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41247-018-0048-1	journal	November 2018

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14 SOLAR ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
EROI
ERoEI
photovoltaic energy
insolation levels
Switzerland
Germany
incentive system
adjustment factor

Title: Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation: A comprehensive response

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