ABSTRACT
Energy consumption drives the evolution of organisms, ecosystems, societies and economic growth. This chapter considers the issues and complexities of energy planning in the context of key environmental concerns. Energy planning entails a five-step process: auditing energy demand, surveying energy supply, identifying problems with energy provision, devising potential solutions to those problems, and recognising constraints imposed by the institutional context for sourcing and delivering energy. Federal and state government policy frameworks aim to guide and harmonise the delivery of energy services to industry and consumers. The fossil energy industry's key bodies, such as the Australian Coal Association (ACA), the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) and the Electricity Supply Association of Australia (ESAA), are politically very powerful. The Energy return on investment (EROI) metric measures the physical difficulty in producing conventional oil and gas, biofuels, renewable electricity and fossil power plants. Coal and the industrial revolution sparked a rapid expansion in economic growth and social development.
