page_title: Embodied energy
section_title: In automobiles
hierarchical_section_title: Embodied energy / In transportation / In automobiles
caption_attribution_description: English: 1998 Volkswagen Golf (1H) CL 5-door hatchback. Photographed in Audley, New South Wales, Australia.
context_page_description: Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or 'embodied' in the product itself. The concept can be useful in determining the effectiveness of energy-producing or energy saving devices, or the "real" replacement cost of a building, and, because energy-inputs usually entail greenhouse gas emissions, in deciding whether a product contributes to or mitigates global warming. One fundamental purpose for measuring this quantity is to compare the amount of energy produced or saved by the product in question to the amount of energy consumed in producing it.
  Embodied energy is an accounting method which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle. Determining what constitutes this lifecycle includes assessing the relevance and extent of energy into raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition as well as human and secondary resources.
caption: The embodied energy contents of a Volkswagen Golf A3 car is 18 000 kWh, the electric energy produced by roughly 9 tons of coal
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