Extended Exergy Analysis (EEA) of Italy, 2013–2017

Alfonso Biondi and Enrico Sciubba
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Alfonso Biondi: School of Industrial and Civil Engineering, Niccolò Cusano University, 00166 Roma, Italy
Enrico Sciubba: School of Industrial and Civil Engineering, Niccolò Cusano University, 00166 Roma, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-21

Abstract: In recent years, many studies have been published on the applications of exergy analyses to complex systems, including entire countries. Oddly, the results, although consistent, appear to lead to divergent conclusions. The underlying problem is that in a “pure” thermodynamic analysis, the so-called “externalities”, i.e., labor, capital, and environmental costs, are often neglected or only approximately included in the picture. In 1998, an extension of the theory that included the exergy content of the externalities was introduced, called “extended exergy accounting” (EEA). Its novelty consisted of the explicit inclusion of the exergy embodied in the externalities. The aim of this work is to use the results of the extended exergy accounting to obtain an indicator that can be used to assess the sustainable development of a country. First, a novel methodological approach to the theory is presented, based on the exploitation of a very large dataset obtained from several national and European statistical institutions. After a brief discussion of the theory, an application to the case of Italy is developed over a 5 years time window (2013–2017). The paper includes a comparison with the concurrent evolution of other sustainability indicators and of the gross domestic product (GDP) indicator. The results show a consistent trend for EE as compared with those of other indicators, and also convincingly proves that this trend is incompatible with that of the GDP. The EE indicator is called the exergy footprint, which also displays a remarkable sensitivity to both environmental and economic factors.

Keywords: exergy analysis; sustainability indicators; extended exergy accounting; exergy footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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