How materials affect energy sustainability

David Cahen, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Igor Lubomirski, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Rapidly occurring changes in energy availability lead to the title topic. Although the commonly perceived answer is yes, we look at the issue because of two issues: a) which amounts of energy or major materials‘ types can be diverted from one to the other to allow changes to new energy sources, without disrupting our daily life; b) can we supply the quantities of materials, required to transition to new energy sources esp. if are these byproducts of large scale production cycles? Both are issues that need to be considered when changes in the energy-materials production / consumption are planned to prevent major disruptions in living standards. Quantifying the issues at hand aids in realizing the challenges ahead.