GC: n
CT: Grey energy is the energy hidden in a product, i.e. the amount of energy required to extract that product from nature, or to cultivate, manufacture, package and transport it. Objects can conceal very different levels of grey energy: for example an apple that is grown locally or one that is shipped from from New Zealand to Europe.
This means that buying a product automatically equates to the expenditure of grey energy. Yet consumers almost never think about grey energy. Because no figures are provided for this form of energy consumption, consumers most often forget that they are also paying for it. In actual fact, every household in Europe consumes twice as much grey energy as it does more conventional energy (heating, light, television, etc.)!
S: http://www.educapoles.org/multimedia/animation_detail/grey_energy_hidden_expenditure_of_energy (last access: 11 February 2015)
N: 1. grey (see gray). gray (adj): Old English græg (Mercian grei), from Proto-Germanic grewa- “gray” (cognates: Old Norse grar, Old Frisian gre, Middle Dutch gra, Dutch graw, Old High German grao, German grau), with no certain cognates outside Germanic. French gris, Spanish gris, Italian grigio, Medieval Latin griseus are Germanic loan-words.
The distinction between British grey and U.S. gray developed 20c. The noun is c.1200, from the adjective. Gray as figurative for “Southern troops in the U.S. Civil War” is first recorded 1863, in reference to their uniform color. Expression the gray mare is the better horse in reference to households ruled by wives is recorded from 1540s. The verb is 1610s (with an isolated instance from late 14c.). Related: Grayed; graying.
energy (n): 1590s, “force of expression,” from Middle French énergie (16c.), from Late Latin energia, from Greek energeia “activity, action, operation,” from energos “active, working,” from en “at” + ergon “work, that which is wrought; business; action”.
Used by Aristotle with a sense of “actuality, reality, existence” (opposed to “potential”) but this was misunderstood in Late Latin and afterward as “force of expression,” as the power which calls up realistic mental pictures. Broader meaning of “power” in English is first recorded 1660s. Scientific use is from 1807. Energy crisis first attested 1970.
2. The sum of energy from all inputs required for the production of an item; e.g., the production of biofuels such as corn ethanol requires the gray energy associated with the application of fertilizers, the use of farm machinery, etc.
3. What is the difference between ‘green’ and ‘grey’ energy?
Grey energy is another word for polluting energy or non-renewable energy. In generating gray energy, fossil fuels are used such as coal or gas.
Green Energy is electricity generated from sources that, cannot be exhausted. The sources are inexhaustible; it is also called sustainable energy. In the production of renewable electricity CO2 emissions are lower than for gray energy, or there are no CO2 emissions and there are less or no harmful substances that can have a negative effect on the environment and the climate.
S: 1. OED – http://goo.gl/X7OCZX; http://goo.gl/4TOXKM; http://goo.gl/HHW1tH (last access: 11 February 2015). 2. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 11 February 2015). 3. http://www.mavitecgreenenergy.com/food-recycling-equipment/information/green-energy-vs-grey-energy/ (last access: 11 February 2015).
OV: gray energy
S: TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 11 February 2015)
SYN: embodied energy
S: GDT (last access: 11 February 2015); TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 11 February 2015)
CR: energy, green energy, renewable energy.
