ABSTRACT
Energy analysis is a domain of knowledge that has never gained the status of established scientific discipline. The term energy analysis has been, and still is, used to refer to a fuzzy set of methodological approaches that are applied to vari-ous problems within different scientific disciplines, including chemistry, physics, agriculture, anthropology, ecology, economics, biology, and geological sciences. In this chapter we provide an overview of the events leading to the rise of energy analysis and of the problems faced by pioneer energy analysts from the very beginning.
