What is an Energy System?

While to avoid the potential consequences of uncontrolled climate change requires profound transformations of the way we grow our economies, and in particular, a fundamental transformation of our energy system, there are feasible solutions to the deep decarbonization of our energy system. This chapter focuses on how energy is produced, transformed and consumed. We use energy from coal, oil, gas, as well as renewable sources such as solar, wind and biofuel to support our economic growth and development. Our energy balance is made up of primary sources of energy, which can either be used for direct, final energy consumption or can be transformed into another form of energy before consumption in end use sectors such as transport or industry. Energy lost during transformation processes represent the difference between primary energy and final energy, and the consumption of most of these forms of fossil fuel energy leads to CO2 emissions and global warming. The ultimate objective of the deep transformation of our energy system is the phasing out of freely emitting fossil fuels.

This video is part of the module "The Deep Decarbonization of Energy Systems."

This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license.