The material-energy nexus: incorporating energy conservation into material flow analysis models

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The decrease in conventional oil supply (production+imports) since 2006, and that of natural gas since 2005 in Europe (EU27+Norway) coupled with the growing problem of climate change are fuelling the search for alternative energy sources, which require much of, if not more than, our limited material reserves to build. The relative size of our material resources compared to the amounts required to satisfy our energy demand via renewable energy technologies will be studied carefully during my project to guide future long term energy resource developments. More specifically, I study material and energy flows, and methods to account for uncertainties associated to them. The aim of my project is to develop a framework which enables uncertainties and their effects to be well understood, providing more transparent results on which better policymaking can be based. There is a particular focus on the supply and demand of materials relevant to the energy transition which represent the interface between material flow analysis (MFA) and energy system modelling (ESM).