Energy, EROI and economic growth in a long-term perspective.

Summary The purpose of this thesis is to study the role of energy in long-term economic growth. Chapter 1 describes the four main facts of growth: the transition from stagnation to sustainability, the Great Divergence, the interdependence between energy consumption and technical progress, and the dynamics in nested and hierarchical cycles. The various remote causes of growth (biogeography, culture, institutions and contingency) are then studied. Chapter 2 presents the theories involving so-called proximate causes, such as technical progress and the accumulation of physical and human capital. The unified growth theory (UGT) is also analyzed. Chapter 3 presents the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and the associated concepts of exergy and entropy. It is then shown that only the consumption of exergy services is a fundamental cause of growth. In chapter 4, it is established that world oil and gas production (but not coal) has already exceeded its maximum energy rate of return (EROI), so that future conventional production will be with a decreasing EROI. Chapter 5 shows that the higher metal requirements of renewable technologies could be a constraint to the successful feasibility of the energy transition. Chapter 6 shows that the net energy constraint materializes in the short term through the energy expenditure (share of the economic product consumed to obtain energy). Chapter 7 presents a theoretical model of endogenous growth integrating the biophysical approach.