Category Archives: Charles A. S. Hall

Charles Hall is the originator of the concept of EROI. As a tenured professor not funded by any special interests, he is one of the most respected, cited, and unbiased scientists writing on EROI.

“The concept of EROI was introduced by US fisheries ecologist Charles Hall, who noted that the energy a predator gained from eating prey had to exceed the energy expended in catching it. In 1981, Hall applied this net energy analysis to our own power generation activities, charting the decline of the EROI of US oil as ever more drilling was required to yield a given quantity, and suggesting the possibility that oil may one day take more energy to extract than it yields. Hall and others have since estimated the EROI for various power sources, a difficult analysis that requires identification of all energy inputs to power production.

EROI is a fundamental thermodynamic metric on power generation. Net energy analysis affords high-level insights that may not be evident from looking at factors such as energy costs, technological development, efficiency and fuel reserves, and sets real bounds on future energy pathways. It is unfortunately largely absent from energy and climate policy development.”
I found this description of Hall at an excellent article about energy storage and EROI by John Morgan that I highly recommend reading: http://climatechangefork.blog.brooklyn.edu/2014/11/04/guest-blog-john-morgan-the-catch-22-of-energy-storage-and-eroi/

Charles Hall: politicians and economy do best when oil is cheap

Preface. Politicians claim credit for a good economy, but what makes an economy prosperous? Cheap oil. During Trump’s reign “relatively cheap oil and gas are keeping the U.S. economy strong. But this cheap oil and gas is being partially subsidized … Continue reading

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Why studies come up with different Energy Returned on Invest (EROI) results: can it be fixed?

[ There are many issues with biofuels beyond their trivial to negative energy return on investment (EROI). In Peak Soil I point out that current industrial farming techniques are destroying topsoil about 15 times faster than pre-fossil fuel economies — … Continue reading

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Murphy & Hall 2011 Adjusting the economy to the new energy realities of the second half of the age of oil

[ Below are excerpts from this 5 page paper, slightly rearranged, go here to see all of the text, figures, and tables.   Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer] Murphy, … Continue reading

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EROI explained and defended by Charles Hall, Pedro Prieto, and others

[ If you found this post interesting, the following posts are even better (more detailed and in-depth): Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 1 Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace … Continue reading

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Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 2

[ Pedro Prieto presented an update on June 20, 2017 at the International Society for Biophysical Economics “Spain’s Solar Revolution Revisited: six years later” here: Pedro-Prieto_ISBPE_2017-Spains-solar-revolution-revisited.pdf.   See the pdf for more information Losses in book overestimated and revised Before / … Continue reading

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Tar sand EROI 2013 Poisson and Hall

Alexandre Poisson, Charles A. S. Hall. 2013. Time Series EROI for Canadian Oil and Gas. Energies 2013, 6, 5940-5959 [ This is an extract from this 20-page paper. Tar sands are the hope offered by techno-optimists that a great deal … Continue reading

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How much net energy return required to prevent collapse?

Preface. Charles Hall, one of the founders of EROI methodology, initially thought an EROI of 3 was enough to run modern civilization, which is like investing $1 and getting $3 back. But after decades of research, Hall concluded an EROI … Continue reading

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Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 1

Book review by Alice Friedemann at energyskeptic of “Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution. The Energy Return on Investment”, by Pedro Prieto and Charles A.S. Hall. 2013. Springer. Conclusion: the EROI of solar photovoltaic is only 2.45, very low despite Spain’s ideal sunny … Continue reading

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Charles A. S. Hall Conventional oil peak was 2005

The global production of conventional oil began to decline in 2005, and has followed a path over the last 11 years very close to our scenarios assuming low estimates of extractable ultimate resource (1.9 Gbbl) John L. Hallock Jr., Wei … Continue reading

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Charles A. S. Hall “EROI of different fuels and the implications for society”

Charles A.S. Hall, Jessica G. Lambert, Stephen B. Balogh. 2014. EROI of different fuels and the implications for society. Energy Policy 64: 141-152. Highlights: For nations examined, the EROI for oil and gas has declined during recent decades. Lower EROI … Continue reading

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