Environmental Assessment on Energy and Sustainability by Data Envelopment Analysis

13WORLD ENERGY

13.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes a recent energy trend in the world. Energy is separated into primary and secondary categories. Primary energy is further classified into fossil fuels and non‐fossil fuels. Fossil fuels include oil, natural gas, and coal, while non‐fossil fuels include nuclear and renewable energies (e.g., solar, water, wind, biomass and other energy resources). Energy consumption is essential for developing economic prosperity in all nations. This chapter considers electricity as a representative of secondary energy because it is produced through the use of primary energy sources.

As the initial step for the DEA environmental assessment to be discussed in Section II, this chapter summarizes a general trend in energy whose consumption has been increasing along with economic development and population increase in the world. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the research necessity of DEA environmental assessment from the perspective of supply and demand on energy, along with population increase, in the world. Based upon our observation on energy, this chapter conveys an academic rationale regarding why DEA is important in investigating various issues on energy, environment and sustainability.

The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: Section 13.2 describes the world energy trend. Section 13.3 describes primary energy sources. Section 13.4 discusses electricity as secondary energy. Section 13.5 discusses the current situation ...