Search

This paper shows how exergy can be used to assess the mineral balance of a country and at the same time assess its mineral resource sustainability. The advantage of using such an approach is that the quality of the resources is taken into account, as opposed to the conventional procedure that uses tonnage as a yardstick. The exergoecology method evaluates mineral resources as the exergy required to replace them from a complete dispersed state to the conditions they were originally found with the best available technologies. The country chosen as a case study is Spain and serves as a representative example of the mineral situation in Europe. The general trend observed is that imports are increasing and domestic production is decreasing. The minerals with higher exergy replacement costs are mainly those imported, including fossil fuels and scarce minerals. In 2005, the domestic production of minerals was higher than the imports but since imports were mainly of scarce minerals, the exergy loss associated with such imports was higher compared to domestic production. As it happens to most European nations, Spain is a very dependent country regarding the supply of fossil fuels but not as much in the case of non-fuel minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify those sectors that contribute most to electricity consumption in Spain, using a methodology based on input–output tables, and to derive some recommendations aimed at increasing energy efficiency in those sectors. This input–output approach is complemented with a sector-focused study in which the availability of electricity-efficient technologies per sector and the barriers to their uptake are identified. This hybrid approach is deemed useful to derive policy implications. We thus propose several instruments to remove those barriers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]