Renewable‐energy technologies have exhibited rapid price drops in recent years, leading to hopes that such technologies will rapidly replace the entire fossil‐fuel‐energy sector. But renewable‐energy systems have been manufactured in a fossil‐fueled infrastructure. Renewable energy has been functioning as a relatively minor adjunct to the overall energy system rather than displacing fossil fuels. If we expect renewable energies to replace rather than merely supplement the fossil‐fuel infrastructure, “energy sprawl” will be a major issue. The energy return on investment (EROI) of renewables is likely to be far lower than the EROI of fossil fuels in their heyday. If renewable sources were eventually to produce all required energy, the energy‐provision sector would comprise a much larger share of the economy than at present and provide less net energy surplus to other economic sectors. This article examines key problems for wind‐ and solar‐photovoltaic‐energy industries, including: the dependence on fossil fuels to manufacture renewable‐energy equipment; the need to move beyond renewable‐energy “sweet spots”; the increasing need for new infrastructure, including storage and long‐distance transmission; and the difficulty in providing the types of heat needed for many industrial processes. Because the era of abundant, affordable energy that has fueled economic growth is coming to an end, we will need to look beyond providing our existing services with greater efficiency and question which forms of these services are actually needed for sufficiency.

中文翻译：

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可再生能源领域的能源扩张：后增长时代的充足性

近年来，可再生能源技术价格迅速下跌，这使人们希望这种技术能够迅速取代整个化石燃料能源领域。但是可再生能源系统是在化石燃料基础设施中制造的。可再生能源一直是整个能源系统的次要辅助手段，而不是替代化石燃料。如果我们期望可再生能源替代而不是仅仅补充在化石燃料基础设施中，“能源蔓延”将是一个主要问题。在鼎盛时期，可再生能源的能源投资回报（EROI）可能远低于化石燃料的EROI。如果可再生能源最终能够生产所有所需的能源，那么能源供应部门将在经济中所占的份额比目前大得多，并为其他经济部门提供更少的净能源过剩。本文探讨了风能和太阳能光伏能源行业的关键问题，包括：对化石燃料的依赖以制造可再生能源设备；超越可再生能源“最佳点”的需求；对新基础设施的需求不断增长，包括存储和远程传输；以及难以提供许多工业过程所需的热量类型。效率以及是否需要充分满足这些服务的形式。