That's true but solar generated electricity is considered to have and EROI of between 8 and 12. The EROI of wind generated electricity is between 5 and 20 with the mean being closer to 20. Clearly we'll have a lower energy economy but might be able to sustain the most important aspects of our economy
What happens to that lower-energy economy (assuming you’re talking about one based on non-renewable, renewable energy-harvesting technologies—aka ‘renewables’) when hydrocarbons are no longer available? Or our ecosystems that will be destroyed even more than they presently are with our attempts to scale up ‘renewables’? Or the argument that there aren’t anywhere near the mineral resources to try scaling these technologies up? If any humans come out the other side of the ecological bottleneck we’ve led ourselves into, their existence will be muscle and solar-based—but by that I mean based upon what our sun can naturally produce.
I think the "I" in EROI is agnostic about how it's produced. I hope that's the case. That said, I'm not optimistic about our future. I think we're already past several tipping points.
So what you're saying is that the EROI of an all electric economy if it ever came to be is less than 1.
An ‘all-electric’ economy is an impossibility.
That's true but solar generated electricity is considered to have and EROI of between 8 and 12. The EROI of wind generated electricity is between 5 and 20 with the mean being closer to 20. Clearly we'll have a lower energy economy but might be able to sustain the most important aspects of our economy
What happens to that lower-energy economy (assuming you’re talking about one based on non-renewable, renewable energy-harvesting technologies—aka ‘renewables’) when hydrocarbons are no longer available? Or our ecosystems that will be destroyed even more than they presently are with our attempts to scale up ‘renewables’? Or the argument that there aren’t anywhere near the mineral resources to try scaling these technologies up? If any humans come out the other side of the ecological bottleneck we’ve led ourselves into, their existence will be muscle and solar-based—but by that I mean based upon what our sun can naturally produce.
I think the "I" in EROI is agnostic about how it's produced. I hope that's the case. That said, I'm not optimistic about our future. I think we're already past several tipping points.