Ugo Bardi: The concept of "EROEI" (energy returned for energy invested) revisited from a biophysical viewpoint. Surprisingly, it turns out to be a widespread concept that involves many different kinds of complex systems, not just energy producing technology. It appears in economics, in epidemiology, in nuclear physics, and in the widespread concept of "trophic chain." A fascinating series of discoveries.
2021 The Role of Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI) in Complex Adaptive Systems
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8411for the first time, we report that the Lotka–Volterra model, usually confined to the study of the biology of populations, can represent a powerful tool to estimate the EROEI of dissipative systems and, in particular, those systems subjected to depletion. This assessment is important to evaluate the ongoing energy transition since it provides us with a model for the decline of the EROEI in the exploitation of fossil fuels