Carey King

University of Texas at Austin | UT · Energy Institute

In this paper we re-examine the relationship between global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Primary Energy Use (PEU) and Economic Energy Efficiency (EEE) to explore how investment in energy efficiency causes rebound in energy use at the global scale. Assuming GDP is a measure of final useful work, we construct and fit a biophysics-inspired nonlinear...

Extracting, processing, and delivering energy requires energy itself, which reduces the net energy available to society and yields considerable socioeconomic implications. Yet, most mitigation pathways and transition models overlook net energy feedbacks, specifically related to the decline in the quality of fossil fuel deposits, as well as energy r...

Extracting, processing, and delivering energy requires energy itself, which reduces the net energy available to society and yields considerable socioeconomic implications. Yet, most mitigation pathways and transition models overlook net...

The demand for meteorological gridded datasets has increased within the last few years to inform studies such those in climate, weather, and agriculture. These studies require those data to be readily usable in standard formats with continuous spatial and temporal coverage. Since 2016, Brazil has a daily gridded meteorological data set with spatial...

This article presents a methodology aimed at improving mid-term power system resilience at transmission substations in areas potentially affected by floods, combining hardening strategies and quantitative metrics. It takes into account flood forecasts from a hydrological model and the location of electrical equipment to perform impact assessment “a...

This paper explains how the Human and Resources with MONEY (HARMONEY) economic growth model exhibits realistic dynamic interdependencies relating resources consumption, growth, and structural change. We explore dynamics of three major structural metrics of an economy. First, we show that an economic transition to relative decoupling of gross domest...

All economies require physical resource consumption to grow and maintain their structure. The modern economy is additionally characterized by private debt. The Human and Resources with MONEY (HARMONEY) economic growth model links these features using a stock and flow consistent framework in physical and monetary units. Via an updated version, we ex...

This chapter discusses several ideas and explanations provided by economists and political scientists for economic growth, distribution, and consumer choice, but that ignore the important biophysical constraints discussed in the previous chapters in the book. These are consumer confidence, political will, decoupling (of economic growth from materia...

This chapter introduces the reader to the concepts and ideas within the book. A real-world story of a Texas town voting on whether to allow natural gas drilling within its borders leads to defining the two types of narratives, those of energy and economics, that form the basis of the book. The competing energy narratives are those that promote foss...

Along with energy consumption and expenditures, there are several other megatrends of the global economy whose data provide context for navigating and interpreting the energy and economic narratives. This chapter summarizes several of the most important trends for assessing the state of society and the economy: population growth and age demographic...

In Chapter 5 the book shifts from exploring data trends and stories to a synthesis of how the trends relate to each other. The chapter begins by describing the concept of systems as a method of thinking and modeling before summarizing the philosophy of naturalism as a means for understanding the world in which we live. The chapter describes concept...

There are many recognized problems with neoclassical macroeconomic growth modeling. This chapter explores a small number of core criticisms that relate to how the theory does and does not consider the role of energy, or power more precisely. The chapter discusses key economic theories and assumptions that, unbeknownst to the vast majority of people...

This chapter houses the concept behind the title of the book: a coherent combined energy and economic narrative is that the economy operates as a superorganism in a similar manner as the biological organisms, such as animals and ant colonies, as described in Chapter 5. By considering the economy as a superorganism, one can dismiss the dichotomous c...

Energy drives the economy, economics informs policy, and policy affects social outcomes. Since the oil crises of the 1970s, pundits have debated the validity of this sequence, but most economists and politicians still ignore it. Thus, they delude the public about the underlying influence of energy costs and constraints on economic policies that add...

This chapter introduces the core data and concepts of energy. It provides a brief history of the concept of energy and distinguishes the concept of energy from that of power. The chapter focuses on historical data for both energy consumption and spending on energy, including food, for the United Kingdom, USA, and world economies. The data provide t...

This chapter summarizes the competing narratives for and against the use of fossil and renewable energy resources and technologies. The chapter presents pros and cons as expressed by each narrative so that the reader understands how the narratives do and do not relate to data from Chapter 2. The pros and cons are expressed via several concepts used...

Are we humans freely choosing our future societal and economic organization, or does our organization emerge in response to physical laws as we interact with the natural world around us? We do not have to explain the human economy in the context of only social rules or natural laws independently from each other. Not only can we use both social rule...

This chapter summarizes many of the US data discussed in the previous chapters into one location. Because the USA has good data and has been the dominant world economy for much of the past 100 years, a look into its energy, economic, and political trends provides insight into what other countries might aspire to attain and avoid, yet be challenged...

For centuries both engineers and economists have collaborated to attempt to raise economic productivity through efficiency improvements. Global primary energy use (PEU) and gross world product (GWP) data 1950–2018 reveal a the effects of aggregate energy efficiency (AEE) improvements since the 1950's have been characterised by two distinct behaviou...

To mitigate the consequences of FEW interdependences and to guide policy action, decision-makers and stakeholders can benefit from using clearly developed indicators and performance metrics. This chapter presents a high-level framework to categorize FEW metrics; demonstrate how different metrics might be favored over others, and explain how metrics...

We will begin by exploring the relationship between science and the type of human-centric challenges confronted in the nexus of FEW systems. We will then explore the wide range of scales in space and time, which arise in FEW nexus studies. These scales are rooted in factors related to decision-making; natural, political, and cultural geography; eco...

This paper derives a long-term dynamic growth model that endogenously links biophysical and economic variables in a stock-flow consistent manner. The two industrial sector HARMONEY (Human And Resources with MONEY) model enables exploration of interdependencies among resource extraction rate and depletion; the accumulation of population, capital, an...

Due to the advantages of relatively mature technologies and low greenhouse gas pollution, wind energy represents a vital energy alternative for electricity generation. Using onshore wind power has become increasingly important in China. Currently, wind energy faces energy return on investment (EROI) and geographical constraints, which both have sig...

Preliminary findings of the trends of spending on energy infrastructure in the United States

The sustainability of biofuels depends on considering the environmental consequences of using water and land resources for bioenergy production. The objective of this study was to assess the potential for biofuel crop expansion by combining water footprint, water availability, and land availability in the last agricultural frontier region of Brazil...

Energy return on energy invested (EROI) might be considered a measure of net energy, and most current studies focus on standard EROI (EROIST). If the energy inputs required to obtain a fuel was extended from a wellhead to the point of use, the energy delivered decreases, and the energy input of delivering the fuel increases. These factors combine t...

This paper analyzes the cost of transmission, distribution, and administration for U.S. investor-owned electric utilities. We analyze data reported to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from 1994 to 2014 using linear regression to understand how the number of customers in a utility's territory, annual peak demand, and annual energy sal...

In this analysis we developed and applied a geographically-resolved method to calculate the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of new power plants on a county-by-county basis while including estimates of some environmental externalities. We calculated the LCOE for each county of the contiguous United States for 12 power plant technologies. The mi...

This paper describes the changing structure of the United States’ (U.S.) domestic economy by applying information theory-based metrics to the U.S. input–output (I–O) tables from 1947 to 2012. Here the I–O tables are an economic network where the sectors are the nodes. The value of these metrics is that they describe the balance or trade-off between...

Although much theoretical work has been put into stressing the importance of understanding the food–energy–water nexus, if this burgeoning focus of inquiry is to have any impact on development pathways, we must advance metrics to guide policy planning and action. In this paper, we outline a framework for establishing such a suite of indicators base...

I use energy cost share to characterize the role of energy in the economy. Specifically, I use an estimate of monetary expenditures for primary energy on an annualized basis for forty-four countries from 1978 to 2010 for natural gas, coal, petroleum, and electricity. I show that global energy cost share is significantly correlated to a one-year lag...

We translate between energetic and economic metrics that characterize the role of energy in the economy. Specifically, we estimate monetary expenditures for the primary energy and net external power ratio (NEPRdirect; NEPR, net external power ratio), a power return ratio of annual energy production divided by annual direct energy inputs within the...

We translate between biophysical and economic metrics that characterize the role of energy in the economy. Specifically, using data from the International Energy Agency, we estimate the energy intensity ratio (EIR), a price-based proxy for a power return ratio (PRR ~ Pout/Pinvested). The EIR is a useful metric, because for most countries and energy...

Recent droughts and heat waves have revealed the vulnerability of some power plants to effects from higher temperature intake water for cooling. In this evaluation, we develop a methodology for predicting whether power plants are at risk of violating thermal pollution limits. We begin by developing a regression model of average monthly intake tempe...

Basic meteorological data are essential for evaluating impacts of spatiotemporal variability in climate forcing on hydrology and agroecosystems. The objective of this work was to develop high-resolution grids (0.25∘ × 0.25∘) of daily precipitation, evapotranspiration, and the five climate variables generally required to estimate evapostranspiration...

Recent droughts and heat waves have revealed the vulnerability of some power plants to effects from higher temperature intake water for cooling. To avoid heating the cooling water beyond temperature thresholds set by the EPA, some plants have been forced to reduce their power generation. At the same time, future warming of water resources from heat...

ERRs (Energy return ratios) are valuable metrics for understanding and comparing the contributions of individual energy technologies. It is also important to calculate ERRs in the context of a system, or economy, using a mix of energy technologies. In this paper I demonstrate a framework to simultaneously consider individual energy technology and s...

Avariety of proposed activities to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions will impact on scarce water resources, which are coming under increasing pressure in many countries due to population growth and shifting weather patterns. However, the integrated analysis of water and carbon impacts has been given limited attention in greenhouse mitigation planni...

We utilize a unit commitment and dispatch model to estimate how water use fees on power generators would affect dispatching and water requirements by the power sector in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' (ERCOT) electric grid. Fees ranging from 10 to 1,000 USD per acre-foot were separately applied to water withdrawals and consumption. Fees...

New demands for water can be satisfied through a variety of source options. In some basins surface and/or groundwater may be available through permitting with the state water management agency (termed unappropriated water), alternatively water might be purchased and transferred out of its current use to another (termed appropriated water), or non-t...

The recent drought in Texas revealed the vulnerability of curtailment for some power plants due to cooling water supplies being too hot. Assessing the risk of reduced operations at thermoelectric power plants associated with thermal discharge limits, as well the potential for cooperation between power plants, can increase the resiliency of the elec...

Vast natural resources and strained water supplies make Mexico a valuable geographic setting for studying the energy-water nexus. While Mexico has historically been a major oil producing country, it struggles with water stress, as much of its land area is experiencing or approaching physical water scarcity. Solving many of Mexico’s water issues wil...

This letter compares several bounding cases for understanding the economic viability of capturing large quantities of anthropogenic CO2 from coal-fired power generators within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas electric grid and using it for pure CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the onshore coastal region of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico....

Many power plants in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region require a large amount of water for system cooling. To improve the understanding of potential risks of electricity generation curtailment due to drought, an assessment of water availability and its potential impacts on generation during drought was performed. For this imp...

This paper describes an evaluation of cross-sector investments in water efficiency to enable increased water availability for hydraulic fracturing. In particular, water needs in Texas are examined to identify the water balances and cost requirements to deploy efficient irrigation water systems for the agricultural sector as a way to make available...

The global nexus between energy and water introduces cross-sectoral vulnerabilities whereby water problems can become energy problems and vice versa. This creates cross-cutting opportunities where solutions for one sector might also be good for the other. How-ever, the tradeoffs between prospective technical and policy solutions are not obvious. To...

The application of optical microstructures improve the quality of light available to the viewer of an optical display system, or any display which works on the concept of moving one surface into direct contact or close proximity of a light guide to extract light through frustrated total internal reflection. Certain ones of the microstructures can a...

Worldwide, algal biofuel research and development efforts have focused on increasing the competitiveness of algal biofuels by increasing the energy and financial return on investments, reducing water intensity and resource requirements, and increasing algal productivity. In this study, analyses are presented in each of these areas—costs, resource n...

This study presents a second-order energy return on investment analysis to evaluate the mutual benefits of combining an advanced wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) (with biological nutrient removal) with algal biofuel production. With conventional, independently operated systems, algae production requires significant material inputs, which require e...

Since the dawn of civilization humans have pursued increasingly complex conversions and combinations of natural resources into functional products and services. Energy resources have been at the forefront of our advances from wood to coal to oil and photovoltaic cells. In pre-industrial times, wood and coal were harvested using human and animate po...

Using a power generation dispatch model of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to estimate CO2 capture from retrofitting an existing coal power plant, this paper estimates the system cost and revenue associated with handling CO2 input and output mismatch in an integrated source-sink pipeline by installing more injection wells into a s...

For many reasons, including environmental impacts and the peaking and depletion of the highest grades of fossil energy, it is very important to have sound methods for the evaluation of energy technologies and the profitability of the businesses that utilize them. In this paper we derive relations among the biophysical characteristic of an energy re...

There are now major drivers to move from petroleum transportation: moving to low-carbon transport life cycles for climate change mitigation, fuel diversity to reduce reliance on imported oil, and economic concerns regarding the relatively high price of oil ( $100/barrel) and the resulting impact on discretionary income. Unfortunately many transport...

ABSTRACT Biomass-based energy has characteristics that could help Maui Island meet multiple long-term goals, including decreasing reliance on oil for electricity and transportation fuels, increasing use of local resources that do not need to be shipped long distances, and diversifying the island economy beyond tourism by preserving agriculture. Bio...

Transportation fuels are heavily dominated by the use of petroleum, but concerns over oil depletion (e.g., peak oil), energy security, and greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum combustion are driving the search for alternatives. As we look to shift away from petroleum-based transportation fuels, most options consume and withdraw more water during...

The possibility of using electricity dispatching strategies to achieve a 50% nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission reduction from electricity generating units was examined using the grid of the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas as a case study. Simulations of a hypothetical policy demonstrate that imposing higher NOx prices induces a switch from som...

A more objective method for measuring the energy needs of businesses, System Energy Assessment (SEA), identifies the natural boundaries of businesses as self-managing net-energy systems, of controlled and self-managing parts. The method is demonstrated using a model Wind Farm case study, and applied to defining a true physical measure of its energy...

The air quality impacts of replacing approximately 20% of the gasoline-powered light duty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with electric VMT by the year 2018 were examined for four major cities in Texas: Dallas/Ft Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) charging was assumed to occur on the electric grid controlle...

This work analyses the carbon dioxide (CO2) capture system operation within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Great Britain (GB) electric grids using a previously developed first-order hourly electricity dispatch and pricing model. The grids are compared in their 2006 configuration with the addition of coal-based CO2 capture ret...

Conventional fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal have historically provided reasonable financial returns on investment as well as energy returned on energy invested (EROEI), despite the fact that continuous financial and energy inputs are required to use these fuels. Besides EROEI, the energy intensity ratio (EIR) is another measure for energy...

Available online: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art2/ http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art2/ES-2010-3781.pdf Understanding the nexus between energy and water - water used for energy and energy used for water - has become increasing important in a changing world. As growing populations demand more energy supplies and wate...

In this letter I compare two measures of energy quality, energy return on energy invested (EROI) and energy intensity ratio (EIR) for the fossil fuel consumption and production of the United States. All other characteristics being equal, a fuel or energy system with a higher EROI or EIR is of better quality because more energy is provided to societ...

As existing water supplies become increasingly strained in some locations, water planners turn to alternative options to quench cities’ thirst. Among these options for inland cities is desalination of seawater or brackish groundwater with long-haul water transfer. Desalination using reverse osmosis membranes is the most common technology in use, ye...

Concern over increased demand for petroleum, reliable fuel supply, and global climate change has resulted in the US government passing new Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards and a Renewable Fuels Standard. Consequently, the fuel mix for light duty vehicle (LDV) travel in the United States will change over the coming years. This paper explores...

Business investments rely on creating a whole system of different parts, technologies, field and business operations, management, land, financing and commerce using a network of other services. Using the example of a wind farm development, a typical life cycle assessment (LCA) focuses upon the primary technology inputs and their countable embodied...

In “Energy-Water Nexus in Texas”, author Amy Hardberger discusses the water requirements of producing energy in Texas. In the first half of the article she addresses the use of water for energy, the need for energy to access water, and the current energy-water nexus in Texas. The second half of the report focuses on future energy-water use in Texas...

The Texas Interactive Power Simulator (TIPS) is an interactive analytical tool developed at the University of Texas at Austin for quantitatively comparing the first-order economic and environmental tradeoffs of different electricity production methods in Texas. The tool is designed for analysis of different power choices and is presented in an onli...

Energy and water are interrelated. We use water for energy, for example to cool thermoelectric power generation and produce liquid fuels. Conversely, we use energy for the collection, treatment, disinfection, and distribution of water and wastewater. In the water sector, strain on existing water supplies, population growth, and the push toward stri...

This paper explains the system economics of an example integrated network that uses anthropogenic CO2 from Texas Gulf Coast fossil power plants for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). These CO2 sources and sinks are connected via a pipeline network. A discounted cash flow model indicates that for all candidate oil fields that require less than an estimate...

Renewable energy and storage technologies are often thought of as sustainable energy systems and several life cycle analyses point to the positive energy return on energy invested for individual renewable systems. However, in order to power the various life cycle processes such as manufacturing, refining, and installation, fossil fuels are used to...

As the need for alternative transportation fuels increases, it is important to understand the many effects of introducing fuels based upon feedstocks other than petroleum. Water intensity in "gallons of water per mile traveled" is one method to measure these effects on the consumer level. In this paper we investigate the water intensity for light d...

Converting light-duty vehicles from full gasoline power to electric power, by using either hybrid electric vehicles or fully electric power vehicles, is likely to increase demand for water resources. In the United States in 2005, drivers of 234 million cars, lighttrucks, and SUVs drove approximately 2.7 trillion miles and consumed over 380 million...

Power generation as well as the production of fuels for transportation requires water, and the supply of high-quality freshwater is energy intensive. A growing population and climate change will increase the pressure on both resources.

Worldwide demand for petroleum grows steadily every year due to increasing demand in the United States as well as countries with fast-growing economies such as China and India, where the populations are striving to attain higher standards of living and lifestyle. Concern over this increased demand for petroleum in light of worries about reliable su...

This paper introduces a methodology for designing multistable equilibrium (MSE) systems. The methodology derives design criteria that relate system equilibrium characteristics to a potential energy curve. These design criteria are then used in a performance index that guides a candidates potential energy to approach the desired potential energy cur...

Multistable equilibrium (MSE) systems are those which have multiple statically stable equilibrium positions. This paper gives an overview of what MSE systems are, how they can be used, and how they can be designed. We describe the numerical optimization and synthesis of an example system composed of energy storage elements from various energy domai...

This paper presents a methodology and an automation tool to synthesize multistable equilibrium systems (MSEs) based on an optimization method that searches for the best topologies for desired MSE system characteristics. The MSE systems generated are composed of interconnected compliant beams. The design methodology involves separate modules on repr...

Multistable equilibrium (MSE) systems are a type of adaptable system that can have multiple mechanical configurations requiring no power to maintain the stable configurations. Thus, power is only needed to move among the stable states, and each stable configuration represents a level of adaptability. Since stable equilibrium configurations can be d...

This work is a part of a larger research project to understand the challenges in creating MultiStable Equilibrium (MSE) devices. MSE devices are those that have more than one stable position or configuration which can be maintained with no power input. The study of potential energy minima in magnetic systems can be used to create novel and efficien...