Iñigo Capellán Pérez: "Net Energy Analysis: Through a Systems Lens"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 553 Ratings
🗓️ 5 July 2023
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode, global systems researcher Iñigo Capellán Pérez joins Nate to discuss net energy analysis, and its use as a tool in analyzing the feasibility of an entire system. While net energy analysis is complex and polarized, some form of it will be necessary to guide society into a resource-constrained future. The energy outlook of a technology changes when scaled up to meet the needs of a larger society. Many models and EROI analyses that fail to take a system-wide view and only look at a single technology use case, only reflect the partial net energy story. When looking at the huge scale-up needed for 'solutions' such as Green Growth and Net Zero Transitions, do the hopes for renewable technologies hold up the lifestyles we've come to expect over the last century of fossil surplus? Do our policymakers and leaders have the full picture to make competent decisions? How can we best use these tools to make creative responses to guide us through a Great Simplification?
About Iñigo Capellán Pérez:
Iñigo is an Industrial Engineer currently doing research with The Group of Energy, Economy and Systems Dynamics (GEEDS) of the University of Valladolid. He holds a Master degree in Electric Energy and Sustainable Development and a PhD in Economics with his dissertation on "Development and Application of Environmental Integrated Assessment Modelling towards Sustainability" at the University of the Basque Country. His research interests focus on the analysis and modeling of the energy-economy-environment systems, the transition to renewable energies in the context of the depletion of fossil fuels and climate mitigation and the technical and social transformations towards sustainability.
For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/78-iigo-capelln-prez
To watch this video episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/m9VFYTXSwNw
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:06.1 | That's me. |
| 0:07.9 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the |
| 0:14.4 | environment, and our society. |
| 0:17.6 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's-eye |
| 0:23.2 | view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it |
| 0:28.7 | as a society and as individuals. |
| 0:33.1 | Please welcome Enigo Capelan Perez to the great simplification. |
| 0:39.1 | Enigo is an industrial engineer currently doing research at the group of energy economy and systems dynamics at the University of Valladolid in Valladolid, Spain. |
| 0:52.3 | He holds a master's in electric energy and sustainable development, |
| 0:56.4 | as well as a PhD in economics. |
| 0:59.8 | I have met with him and his team who are working on systems integration of energy, |
| 1:06.9 | climate, renewable energy, fossil fuel depletion, |
| 1:10.5 | and technical and social transformations towards |
| 1:13.6 | sustainability. We talked about EROI and the importance of a wide boundary perspective on |
| 1:20.5 | biophysical analysis. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Enigo Kaplan-Perez. |
| 1:42.7 | Enigo, good to see you. Hello. |
| 1:47.5 | Welcome to the Great Simplification podcast. |
| 1:55.1 | The last time I saw you was in Valladolid when we had a one-day seminar on biophysical economics at your university six years ago or something. |
| 1:59.9 | Yes, pre-COVID for sure. |
| 2:02.7 | Yeah. You know, it's interesting. |
| 2:04.9 | I don't know why this is, and it might be a small sample size, but of the really biophysically |
... |
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