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The concept of energy quality has been a persistent problem area, since energy analysis emerged as a separate discipline in the early 1970s. Various methods for measuring energy quality have been proposed, including: thermodynamic measures and their modern derivatives, OECD thermal equivalents and fossil fuel equivalents. Each of these methods are critically examined, and are found to be inappropriate for measuring energy quality in complex economic systems where a whole variety of processes, sources and end–uses are concurrently used. The quality equivalent methodology is introduced in the final section of the paper as a candidate method for measuring energy quality in complex economic systems, as well as providing a method for operationalising the Lovins–type end–use matching framework.
Murray Patterson (Fri,) studied this question.