Exergy analysis of the Norwegian society

The use and conversion of energy carriers and materials in the Norwegian society in 1995 were investigated by an exergy analysis. All resources that enter the society, such as waterfall energy, fossile fuels, ores and minerals, harvested crops, fishing and hunting, and wood, were included. However, exported oil and gas were excluded from the analysis. The end use was broken down into nine end-use sectors: forest industry, food sector, aluminum industry, steel and other metal industry, chemical industry, transportation, households, public service, and other industry. Each of these sectors was treated in further detail. The last three sectors were also regrouped into mechanical work, space heating, and lighting, equipment, etc. The total exergy input was 1.184 PJ, which was 278 GJ per capita. The output of products and services contained 280 PJ exergy or 68 GJ per capita. This was 24% of the input. The household and public-service sectors had exergy efficiencies of approx. 10%, whereas the aluminium and forestry sectors had efficiencies of approx. 40% and 50%, respectively. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.