Towards an improved methodology for Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for electricity supply

The challenge of decarbonising electricity grids is urgent, but pathways towards decarbonisation are uncertain. Integrated, and energy system optimisation modelling, is used to project future low emission scenarios to provide policy guidance. Cost minimisation is a key objective function. Although economic analyses can identify pathways that are economically infeasible, they cannot identify those that are energetically infeasible. Net-energy analysis (NEA), using the energy return on investment (EROI) metric, has the potential to supplement conventional economic and environmental models by providing an energetic valuation of energy supply. However, a lack of methodological consistency has limited the utility of this approach. This presentation explores the approaches to addressing the methodological inconsistency, and the role of NEA in supporting conventional economic analyses.