Energy systems-Making energy services available

Making progress in the energy transition requires a more concrete conceptualization of the way in which the energy system works, now and in the future. This chapter presents a fairly simple conceptual framework that will help to analyze and understand the way in which communities provide themselves (more or less effectively) with the energy they need to support their social and economic activities. It provides insight into how the notion of a supply chain helps us to understand the geophysical and technical aspects of ‘harvesting’ the raw energy as found in nature and bringing it as practically usable and sustainable energy carriers to societies. Thereupon it explains how humans and societies make this supply chain actually work, turning it into a constantly evolving value chain by means of the institutional and economic coordination of the activities, driven by the values the public and private actors involved maintain.