On the true value of resource consumption when using energy in industrial and other processes

In this paper we attempt to provide a partial answer to the question of why energy is a scarce resource. Scarcity is a fundamental concept in the science of economics. If resources, goods or services were not in scarce supply, we need not economise when utilising them. Indeed, free commodities we need not pay for, their prices are zero, we attach no economic value to them, and their supply is in abundance – at least beyond the point at which our needs and wants are satisfied. However, energy is regarded as a scarce resource, although energy – as such – is not scarce. To describe energy as a useful and therefore a valuable quantity, to which a price may be attached, energy will thus have to be characterised in further dimensions than energy content alone. Apart from quantity, there is a need for a uniform qualitative measure of energy. The obvious field to revert to for such considerations is thermodynamics, which offers a method for defining a uniform measure for the qualitative content of energy, namely exergy.