Abstract
This chapter summarises the basic concepts to understand energy economics and the fundamentals of energy and power systems. First, physical and engineering basics are introduced, including the concepts of energy and power as well as the fundamental laws of energy conservation and thermodynamics. The role of energy in human societies and the development of energy use over the last decades and across the globe are discussed along with the major challenges of resource availability and environmental damage associated with energy use. In view of applied analyses, the energy transformation chain and the concepts used in national energy balances, such as primary energy and final energy, are introduced. The limitations of these statistics are shown, e.g. regarding the lack of data on useful energy and energy services. Finally, also the particularities of electricity and of the electricity sector are discussed, highlighting notably the relevance of its non-storability and its grid infrastructure.
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Notes
- 1.
The International System of Units (SI) also describes prefixes beside the description of coherent systems of units. Prefixes are added to unit names to produce multiples and sub-multiples of the original unit.
- 2.
K stands for the unit kelvin. 0 °C corresponds to 273.16 K, 100 °C to 373.16 K. The temperature intervals on the kelvin scale are hence identical to those on the Celsius scale, yet the zero point is the absolute zero (−273.16 °C), cf. Sect. 2.1.2. By convention, temperature intervals should always be indicated in kelvin.
- 3.
Thermodynamics is the term used to designate the branch of physics that deals with heat phenomena and in particular with all types of heat engines.
- 4.
Note that sometimes the term “closed system” is used for isolated systems as defined here. As this lends to confusion, we prefer the definitions used here.
- 5.
Cf. footnote 2, p. 10.
- 6.
Note that according to this definition, reserves are not included in the resources. Sometimes, the term resources is yet also used in a broader sense, encompassing also the reserves. This is particularly the case in general or qualitative statements on the “available resources”.
- 7.
In case renewable resources are rather evenly distributed over a country, this is an advantage compared to many fossil fuels with often locally concentrated deposits. Yet, if the renewable potentials are unevenly distributed, additional challenges for energy transport and electricity grid extension arise (cf. Chap. 12).
- 8.
- 9.
Note that CO2 is often not classified as an air pollutant, since it is a component of the earth atmosphere even in the absence of human activities.
- 10.
The most publicized case has been the manipulations performed by Volkswagen that were revealed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015. But other car manufacturers have also been accused of implementing so-called defeat devices, i.e., installations that intentionally reduce the effectiveness of emission controls under real-world driving conditions, cf. Contag et al. (2017).
- 11.
Energy balances for multiple countries based on similar conventions are compiled by the IEA (cf. IEA 2021).
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Weber, C., Möst, D., Fichtner, W. (2022). Fundamentals of Energy and Power Systems . In: Economics of Power Systems. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97770-2_2
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