Exergy Analysis of the Supply of Energy and Material Resources in the Swedish Society

Mei Gong and Göran Wall
Additional contact information
Mei Gong: School of Business, Engineering and Science, Halmstad University, Halmstad 30118, Sweden
Göran Wall: Öxbo, Lerum 44392, Sweden

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: Exergy is applied to the Swedish energy supply system for the period 1970–2013. Exergy flow diagrams for the systems of electricity and district heating as well as for the total supply system of energy and material resources for 2012 are presented. The share of renewable use has increased in both electricity and district heat production. The resource use is discussed in four sectors: residential and service, transportation, industry and agriculture. The resource use is also analyzed with respect to exergy efficiency and renewable share. The total exergy input of energy and material resources amounts to about 2700 PJ of which about 530 PJ was used for final consumption in 2012. The results are also compared with similar studies. Even though the share of renewable resource use has increased from 42% in 1980 to 47% in 2012, poor efficiency is still occurring in transportation, space heating, and food production. A strong dependence on fossil and nuclear fuels also implies a serious lack of sustainability. A more exergy efficient technology and a higher renewable energy share are needed in order to become a more sustainable society.

Keywords: exergy; renewable; exergy flow diagram; electricity; district heating; Sweden (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: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/9/707/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/9/707/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:9:p:707-:d:77284

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().