CH1BSReady

Question 1

Energy Services

Answer 1

Services in which energy is required to provide even the most basic resources such as food, water, air, or energy itself. Energy is used in every aspect of our economy, society, and prospects for the future, and so understanding the role of energy requires understanding how it links to all of these aspects of the world around us.

Question 2

Distribution

Answer 2

A complete calculus of the benefits, costs, risks, allocations within a population. Distribution gives us information to help us better determine prospects for our future relationship to welfare and energy would be required in order to understand the welfare impacts of our energy choices. Welfare refers to prosperity and living standards as measured by notion of “utility”.

Question 3

Physical Risks

Answer 3

Risks associated with the loss of physical access to necessary supplies through depletion or supply-chain disruption.

Question 4

Economic Risks

Answer 4

Risks associated with dramatic changes in the cost to produce or the price to procure energy resources.

Question 5

Metric

Answer 5

A quantifiable and standard unit of measure for either the energy components (btu, Joules, or kWh) or the output ($ or ¥ or €). It is merely important to understand the definitional relationship among the component parts. A metric represents a benchmark, a standard of measure that enables easy comparison across different items that can be defined using the same metric.

Question 6

Cross-sectional

Answer 6

The 1st way to compare a metric correctly is to do so by comparing it against similarly constructed metrics

Question 7

Time-series

Answer 7

The 2nd way to compare a metric correctly is to do so by comparing it through time against itself

Question 8

Population (P)

Answer 8

1 of 3 components of the IPAT Framework. This framework is a general form of thinking about measuring the Impact of the various elements on our environment and its impact on society, and is designed with the form:

I=PAT ==> Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology1 of 3 components of the IPAT Framework. This framework is a general form of thinking about measuring the Impact of the various elements on our environment and its impact on society, and is designed with the form:

I=PAT ==> Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology1 of 3 components of the IPAT Framework. This framework is a general form of thinking about measuring the Impact of the various elements on our environment and its impact on society, and is designed with the form:

I=PAT ==> Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology

Question 9

Fertility Rate

Answer 9

A concept that can be used to analyze the trends in population growth. It’s the calculation of live births per female that can be used to explain the rate of population replacement in a country or region.

Question 10

Population Momentum Effect

Answer 10

This effect causes the age distribution in a currently fast-growing population to be disproportionately young, such as in many poor and developing nations. As such, these younger populations continue to reproduce faster than older populations, growing until the natural death rate equals with the fertility rate, equilibrating younger and older members of the society.

Question 11

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Answer 11

Is one the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country’s economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period - you can think of it as the size of the economy.

Question 12

Energy Intensity (E/GDP)

Answer 12

Energy (E) per unit of GDP. The relationship of how much output can be created with each unit of that energy. Energy Intensity has fallen over the years because we are getting more energy efficient.

Question 13

Energy Consumption

Answer 13

the amount of physical units of energy used (usually measured in volumes)

Question 14

Energy Expenditures

Answer 14

the currency required for energy consumption or to procure energy

Question 15

Energy Productivity (GDP/E)

Answer 15

The concept of Energy Intensity is closely related to Energy Productivity (GDP/E), which is simply its inverse. It reframes GDP as a function of energy, and it is often used as a measure of comparative productivity across countries.

Question 16

Meme

Answer 16

Claims that argue for optimal outcomes or best practices in a given situation are usually based on limited visibility over the entire system and/ or personal objectives. Sometimes these claims settle down into rules of thumb or “memes” that can persist over large populations and through time until they can be overwhelmingly disputed.

Question 17

Positive Analysis

Answer 17

fact-based and objective analysis

Question 18

Normative Analysis

Answer 18

subjective and values-based analysis

Question 19

Systems Thinking

Answer 19

Energy is best understood as a set of interconnected systems, which are collectively referred to as the Energy System. Collectively, the object of analysis becomes these system elements and within them are many parts, sub-systems, and interactions. Such Systems Thinking is a distinct from the traditional marginal analysis that populates much of economics and social sciences.

Question 20

Marginal Analysis

Answer 20

Simplifies a relationship to a few variables that can be analyzed by holding all other variables constant (Ceteris Paribus) has been a bedrock of analytics in these fields and is an incredibly useful tool. It explains individual behaviors very well, can be used for allocation decisions of producers, and defines the rate of change at a specific point under local conditions.

Question 21

ceteris paribus

Answer 21

meaning, with all other things being equal or held constant

Question 22

Model

Answer 22

a constructed representations of how some elements of world operate

Question 23

Input-output Diagram

Answer 23

a system is just a (typically more complex) model but with some rules for integration that allow it to be consistent and useful. A basic open system will encompass some inputs, some internal transformations and processes, and some outputs. The internal transformations and processes will relate some inputs to some outputs and under what conditions those transformations will take place, otherwise called a Input-Output Diagram.

Question 24

System Dynamics

Answer 24

An examination of the systems and all its integral parts. It gives us information for how the system behaves and responds to stimuli, etc.

Question 25

System Structure

Answer 25

the system can be viewed as a collection of components at any given moment in time. These components have natural groupings and relationships and can provide a geographic “map” of the system structure

Question 26

Transformations

Answer 26

Once the system structure is established, it is useful to understand the transformations within that structure as time passes or elements change. The strength of these relationships and the direction in which they flow can explain dynamic behaviors. Systems are best understood not in how they are, but in how they change.

Question 27

Leverage Points

Answer 27

because systems are interconnected, any point can be affected by many others. Not all of these will have an equal effect as the strength of the transformations may vary, particularly across a number of relationships or structural elements. Identifying where small efforts in one part of the system can create major change in other parts of the system allows for the observation of leverage points.

Question 28

Non-linearities

Answer 28

Sometimes, dramatic change can occur but only after a while and in a non-linear way. Systems often exhibit the behavior of maintaining themselves until certain thresholds are reached and then system dynamics can radically alter the behavior to a very different mode. Observing and predicting these non-linearities reveals much about the system itself.

Question 29

Root Cause

Answer 29

When trying to explain the reason that certain observations occur, there are many levels on which that explanation can proceed. Sometimes there is an immediate reason, but that reason is usually motivated by other, deeper relationships in a system. An apt analogy is evaluating the symptoms versus the disease, and uncovering the underlying “root cause” of the observed phenomenon can be enabled using system dynamics.

Question 30

Supply Chain

Answer 30

This represents all of the energy in the human-industrial system – from total energy inputs to final energy consumption and energy services (outputs) –and is the basis of the energy system analysis. It also includes the physical delivery system (“Infrastructure”) to move and transform the energy from its origin to its final disposition.

Question 31

Infrastructure

Answer 31

the physical delivery system (“Infrastructure”) to move and transform the energy from its origin to its final disposition.

Question 32

Open vs. Closed Systems

Answer 32

The technical distinction between open and closed systems is that an open system is continually influenced, informed, or constrained by the activities of elements outside the system, whereas a closed system receives its endowments at the time it is set up and then remains isolated from outside influences.

Question 33

Nested Systems

Answer 33

systems are both influenced and constrained by activities in other systems. The energy supply chain takes inputs (resources and capital) from the natural resource system and the economy, and sends its outputs (economic productivity and waste products) back into those systems. These systems can easily be thought of as nested systems where one fits easily inside another, both of which fit inside a third.

Question 34

Circular vs. Directional Systems

Answer 34

Circular systems, as the macro-economy is often modeled, has many interrelated elements that can exhibit a balance and feedback keeping the various elements in check. It is often difficult to discern the beginning and the end of a circular system process, just like the old chicken and egg problem. In contrast, directional systems tend to have a distinct beginning in a distinct end, usually with very distinct and different inputs and outputs. They start with some inputs and go through a series of transformations resulting in outputs, but the outputs don’t stay in the system or recycle in any significant way.

Question 35

Scarcity

Answer 35

Scarcity implies that our needs and wants will always be greater than our ability to procure them from the resources at hand. Basically, people constantly suffer from a lack of income or assets to meet their material needs or wants. Individuals want more satisfaction, businesses need more capital, governments want to provide more services for its citizens, but all of them are limited by the endowments available to them.

Question 36

Constrained Optimization

Answer 36

used to demonstrate the relationship between Objectives and Constraints. It is often the case that an actor is trying to maximize or minimize some outcome (i.e. find the “best” solution), and must do so within the limits imposed by some number of constraints.

Question 37

Objectives and Constraints

Answer 37

Objectives are considered a solution to problems within a energy system and Constraints are limiting factors within an energy system that make finding solutions more diffcult

Question 38

Comparative Advantage

Answer 38

Individuals specializing in some task for which they may be relatively well suited (technically a Comparative Advantage) create additional productivity that can be shared with others who specialize in different outputs, thereby raising the aggregate pool of outputs available for all.

Question 39

Innovation

Answer 39

Within the system (Supply, Efficiency (Demand), Cost, or Benefit) there are many incentives and opportunities to try to procure more energy inputs and use them more efficiently to create outputs. Constraints compel people to invention and creativity in trying to create additional advantage for themselves in the form of reduced costs or increase profits.

Question 40

Depletion

Answer 40

We tend to procure the cheapest and easiest resources first, leaving the more expensive ones for later. Competitors are constantly trying to take away market share, which keeps prices in check. This notion of Depletion (of resources or capacity or value) is a very normal economic behavior whereby we minimize costs first, but that uses up a scarce opportunity that may not necessarily be replaced or renewed.

Question 41

Sustainability

Answer 41

depletion is making things more difficult and threatening a collapse of wealth and welfare if we damage or exhaust our resource base before we can innovate to another path. The very notion of Sustainability tries to reconcile these issues.

Question 42

Present Value vs. Future Value

Answer 42

The easiest way to conceptualize the impact of growth rates is to understand how the value of anything today (Present Value) increases by a certain periodic rate (denoted here as compound interest, or i) over a number of periods (time, or t), to determine its value at the end of those periods (Future Value).

Question 43

Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

Answer 43

It is also possible to calculate the imputed growth rate by knowing the present value and future value and applying the compound annual growth rate formula also in Figure ???. It is simply a rearrangement of the future value formula to isolate the imputed interest rate. This creates a metric that is suitable for comparing relative growth rates across similar types of growth and similar periods.

CAGR = (( EV / BV)^(1 / n)) - 1