Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470

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Energy for Sustainable Development

Is modernization making villages more energy efcient? A long-term comparative

end-use analysis for Cheranatzicurin village, Mexico
Marco Martnez-Negrete a,b, Ren Martnez b, Roselio Joaqun c, Claudia Sheinbaum d, Omar R. Masera b,
a
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Mexico
b
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Antigua carretera a Ptzcuaro 8701, Morelia, Michoacn 58190, Mexico
c
Comunidad de Cheranatzicurin, Mexico
d
Instituto de Ingeniera, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Mexico

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A detailed analysis of the change in the patterns of energy use in a Mexican village, from the year 1986 to
Received 7 May 2013 2012 is presented. The satisfaction of energy needs is analyzed according to the rst- and second-law ef-
Accepted 9 May 2013 ciencies of thermodynamics, for a total of 22 end-uses. The analysis covers both the end-use devices used
Available online 4 June 2013
for energy conversion and the energy and exergy used in the related thermodynamical tasks. The nal energy
per capita was 11.0 GJ/year in 2012, about 10% less than in 1986. In the study period, the overall rst-law ef-
Keywords:
Energy end-use analysis
ciency of the community increased from 17% to 23%, while the second-law efciency rose from 6.4% to 8.2%.
Rural energy The increments in useful energy and minimum exergy (total and per capita), relative to 1986, occur at the ex-
Exergy analysis pense of a small increase in the per capita consumption of nal exergy of the community.
Fuelwood The rise of both energy efciencies is a consequence of the reduction in fuelwood consumption and on the
Energy use patterns use of draft-animals, whose conversion efciencies into nal energies and useful work are extremely low.
Mexico Also, there is 314% increase in the village's fossil fuel use, especially due to an increase in the penetration
of gas and electric appliances into the household sector and of vehicles. The energy use in the productive sec-
tor including agriculture fell dramatically. CO2 emissions from the community's energy use rose by 279%.
Despite the increase of commercial energy use, and a rapid penetration of LPG cookstoves, fuelwood still
represents 68% of the village nal energy consumption. Also, there is a large mismatch between sources
and needs in thermodynamic terms: while 72% of the energy needs correspond to work and heat at less
than 100 C, 99% of the energy sources imply combustion processes (fuelwood, LPG, gasoline and diesel)
to mid and high temperatures. However, in order to reduce CO2 emissions, the electricity and transport
devices have to increase their efciencies, and primary energy ought to come in higher proportion from
renewable sources.
2013 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction actually available for society. Contrasting with energy, exergy is a

One of the basic problems for rural communities in developing coun-
tries is assuring the universal satisfaction of their basic energy needs
(food, housing, health, transport, recreation, etc.) through accessible and
clean technologies that are compatible with available resources.
Energy end-use analysis and exergy analysis represent useful tools
to help analyze energy needs. Exergy, dened as the maximum useful
work that can be developed in the thermodynamic equilibration
process between one or more systems (Martnez-Negrete, 2011),
provides a quantitative measure of the energy resources that are
Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 4433222709; fax: +52 4433222719.
E-mail addresses: marcoamn@yahoo.com (M. Martnez-Negrete),
redamar@cieco.unam.mx (R. Martnez), marcoamn@yahoo.com (R. Joaqun),
csp@pumas.iingen.unam.mx (C. Sheinbaum), omasera@gmail.com (O.R. Masera).
physical quantity that is actually consumed by its use. Exergy has
been increasingly used in energy systems analysis (Dincer and
Rosen, 2007), because it allows comparing the minimum resources
available for the execution of thermodynamic tasks with the re-
sources that are actually consumed by the satisfaction of these
tasks. By providing an objective basis for the elimination of resource
waste, the exergy analysis is also clearly linked to a broader sustain-
ability analysis of the system in question (village, city, region).
In fact, in a seminal paper, Reddy and Subramanian (1979) pro-
posed exergy analysis as a pillar to facilitate a more sustainable and
efcient use of available resources. The authors suggested undertak-
ing a matching process between available energy sources and ener-
gy needs consisting of the following steps: (a) determining the
present pattern of energy use and exergy consumption; (b) transla-
tion of these patterns into a set of energy needs arranged according
to priority; (c) consideration of appropriate technological options,

0973-0826/$ see front matter 2013 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2013.05.004
464 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470
including traditional devices, to satisfy every assembly of needs with
the available resources; (d) selection of the best option for each cate-
gory of energy needs; and nally (e) integration of the diverse op-
tions into a system.
Recently, the exergy analysis has been used to model energy
processes both at a productive-sector level and at a country-level
(Chen and Chen, 2007; Chen et al., 2006; Utlu and Hepbasli, 2005).
Banerjee and Tierney (2011) used exergy in combination with other
methods to evaluate ten energy systems for rural communities.
Suganthi and Samuel (2000) analyzed the possibility of employing
the exergy of renewable resources by applying a method of minimiza-
tion of exergy destruction, in order to achieve optimal sustainability
conditions in the rural sector of India. There are some other studies
that analyze options for centralized or decentralized energy systems
for rural communities based on exergy analysis (Banerjee et al.,
2012; Meyer et al., 2009). However, there have been no recent studies
that analyze the energy and exergy balances of a rural community
from a second-law of thermodynamics perspective, nor its evolution
through time.
The present article analyzes the evolution of energy use and
exergy consumption in the Mexican village of Cheranatzicurin,
over a period of 27 years (from 1986 to 2012). The analysis is
based on the rst- and second-law efciencies of thermodynamics.
A rst exhaustive energy and exergy study of Cheranatzicurin vil-
lage was performed in 1986 (Masera and Dutt, 1991; Masera et al.,
1987). In this paper analysis of the socio-environmental and energy
situation of that community is made for the year 2012, much along
the same lines of the 1991 article. The present study is unique be-
cause it allows assessing the energy use and exergy consumption
patterns from primary energy to useful energy for each energy
end-use of the community. Additionally CO2 emissions associated
to the oil by products and primary fuels for electricity consumption
are estimated.
The community of Cheranatzicurin, with a 2012 population of 2464,
is situated in the Purpecha Region of the state of Michoacn, in the
highlands of Center-West Mexico. Like most Mexican communities of
the area, Cheranatzicurin shows a high migration rate of local inhabi-
tants to other regions, a dependency on monetary remittances from
people living abroad, particularly in the United States, and a lack of suf-
cient employment opportunities within local productive activities. In
the following sections we describe the methodology and the results of
the study.
Methodology
As explained by Masera and Dutt (1991), at the village level, a de-
tailed analysis of energy needs begins by determining a series of
end-uses and their associated resource use in raw units. Final energy
is thus constructed knowing the conversion factor (energy content)
of the different energy sources used for each end-use. Useful energy
(Euse), while apparently straightforward to measure, is not easy to de-
ne for many end-uses, such as refrigeration and transportation. In
this article Euse is determined based on an estimated, or measured, en-
ergy conversion efciency of the end-use device (also named
rst-law efciency). Energy use in a village also implies to account
for the energy losses in the form of generation, transmission, and dis-
tribution for electricity and fossil fuel-production. Adding them to the
nal energy consumption (Enal) yields the primary energy use
(Eprim). From a thermodynamic perspective, energy needs may be fur-
ther divided into work (stationary and mobile) and heat (at different
temperatures) and the minimum energy needs estimated by using
the second law of thermodynamics (Ford et al., 1975). As stated,
exergy measures the available work consumed when a specic ener-
gy task is carried out. To calculate how much available work is con-
sumed relative to that needed we dene the task efciency in terms
of the second-law efciency. For an energy analysis we thus need to
calculate the nal exergy (Exnal) or actual energy expenditure in
performing the task and the minimum exergy (Exmin) or the least
exergy consumption needed for the task. The second law efciency
is given by the ratio of Exmin to Exnal.
Mathematically, Euse is calculated for each end-use as the product
of the rst-law efciency of the technical device () and the nal en-
ergy consumption (Enal).
Euse  Efinal 1
By adding the nal and useful energies for each device and re-
source, the rst-law efciency of the community as a system can be
determined.
Primary energy (Eprim) of entrance into the community is calculat-
ed taking into consideration the external losses as a rst-law efcien-
cy for the conversion of each external source, ext,
Efinal
Eprim 2
ext
For external thermodynamic tasks that imply fuel conversions to
work, as in power plants, rst- and second-law efciencies are
the same (see Table 1), in this way nal exergy is equal to primary
energy. Therefore:
Efinal
Exfinal 3
ext
The second-law efciency is dened as follows
Ex min
4
Exfinal
The minimum exergy of the task is
Ex min  Exfinal 5
For fuel-work or work-work tasks
ext  6
For fuel-heat or work-heat tasks
ext   q 7
Here q = 1 (To/T) is the Carnot factor (which takes the values
that are explicit in Table 1), T0 is the absolute ambient temperature,
T2 the temperature associated to a heating end-use and T3 the tem-
perature related to a cooling end-use task.
CO2 emissions are calculated according to the methodology and
emission factors of the IPCC (2006). In the case of electricity, a nation-
al emission factor is calculated because in Mexico the national grid is
interconnected. The electricity emission factor depends on the yearly
fossil fuel consumption, gross generation, and transmission and dis-
tribution losses (Sheinbaum et al., 2011). By 1986 the electricity
emission factor was 196.1 tCO2/TJ and decreased in 2011 to
159.1 tCO2/TJ due to an increase in the use of natural gas in
combined-cycle plants, in detriment of the fuel oil use in steam
plants. The emission factor of 2011 is used since data from 2012 is
not yet available.
Data sources
The present study is the result of a comprehensive data gathering
process comprising surveys, interviews, and direct measurements in
Cheranatzicurin village, according to the protocol established by
Masera and Dutt (1991). The data for the present analysis was
 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470 465

Table 1 Table 2
Calculation of the rst- and second-law efciencies. Efciencies are calculated as Selected changes in socio-environmental indicators, Cheranatzicurin (19862012).
shown in Eqs. (1) and (2). Source: Ford et al. (1975).
Variables 1986 2012
End-use Work Fuel
Demographic
Ex = Wi Ex = |H|
Population (hab) 2418 2464
 
Work Wo W W o jH j Family size (pers/fam) 6 3.6
 i 
Ex = Wo Wo
Wi
Wo
jH j
Number of households 340 583
= Number of families 403 685
 
Heat Q2  Q2 W Q 2 jH j
  i Environmental
Ex Q 2 1T 0 T        
2
Q 2 W 1T 0 T Q 2 jHj 1T 0 T Village area 3709 3709
i 2 2
Crop area (ha) 670 295
q q
  Quality of life
Heat Q3   COP Q3
COP Q 3 Households w/tap water 0 522 (90%)
 Wi jH j
Ex Q 3 T 0 T 1      T   Households w/electricity 240 (71%) 565 (97%)
3
Q3
Wi
T
0
T3
1 Q3
jHj
0
T3
1 Households w/phone 0 123 (21%)
Cell phones 0 126 (22%)
COP  q COP  q Computers 0 28 (5%)

Symbols: Ex exergy content; firstlaw efficiency; H enthalpy of the fuel;

Access to technology
secondefficiency; W i work input; T 0 ambient temperature;
W o work output; q Carnot factor; Q 2 ; Q 3 heats transferred; Refrigerators 0 195 (33%)
T 2 ; T 3 enduse temperatures; COP coefficient of performance: Radios 230 (68%) 431 (74%)
Televisions 41 (12%) 443 (76%)
Washing machines 0 103 (18%)
Open res for cooking 404 (100%) 685 (100%)
obtained as follows: (a) For the cases where no signicant changes in LPG cookstoves 10 (3%) 240 (41%)
the end-use technologies were observed, the unit consumption and Passenger and cargo vehicles 20 151
conversion factors of the 1986 analysis were utilized (e.g., per capita Tractors 6 20
fuelwood use, diesel consumed per hectare for corn production, Draft animals 120 20

daily maize consumption per capita, etc.). We then multiplied the
unit consumption values by the current aggregate data at the village
level (population, cultivated are, etc.) to obtain the total consump-
tions of the community in year 2012. (b) In other cases, like electricity
consumption for end-uses that were not present or registered in 1986
(like refrigeration, washing machines, water pumping, etc.) the perti-
nent unit consumptions were estimated by using eld surveys; (c)
basic socioeconomic data such as: population, number of families,
number of houses with electrical power, number of LPG stoves, do-
mestic appliances, vehicles, etc., were obtained from a census orga-
nized by team that included a group of people from the community
and the authors of the present study, as well as from the ofcial pop-
ulation census for Mxico (INEGI, 2010); (d) surveys to a statistically
signicant sample of households and institutions were applied to es-
timate the domestic use of electricity, and public lighting, gasoline
consumption for public, private, and commercial transportation, the
extent of cultivated land, etc. In total, about ten months were invested
in updating the data relative to the community's end-uses energy
consumption corresponding to the year 2012.
Results
Socio-environmental context
The changes in the energy consumption pattern in Cheranatzicurin
need to be understood in the context of larger socio-economic and en-
vironmental processes and trends. The most important ones being: a)
village population has not increased within the 27 year period of
study due to the migration of local people to other regions mainly to
the United States and a reduction in birth rates, which has also pro-
voked a large reduction in family size; b) the drastic reduction or elim-
ination of several local productive activities including a reduction of
almost a half in the agricultural area; c) the introduction of a tapwater
grid, and d) the penetration of several modern technologies aimed at
satisfying different energy end-uses of the community. Table 2 presents
an overview of these changes. The changes that occurred from 1986 to
2012 in each of the different village economic sectors are further de-
tailed below.
The productive sector was reduced dramatically and several activities
that generated around 200 direct jobs in 1986 (about one-fourth of total
Note: Quantities inside parenthesis show the percentage of families, (or homes) with
access to the variable in question.
jobs) disappeared; these activities included: tree-resin extraction,
hand-made tortilla for sale outside the village, fuelwood for sale outside
the village, and guitar manufacture. The area cultivated with maize de-
creased from 670 ha to only 295 ha; furthermore, more than 90% of the
current crop area (around 275 ha) is ploughed with tractors, as op-
posed to the past dependence on draft animals. The reduction of
cropping land has signied a loss of local self-sufciency in corn con-
sumption: while in 1986 there was a 50% surplus in the production of
maize, in 2012 the corn produced locally only covers 68% of the commu-
nity needs.
In the processing sector, the mechanization of tortilla manufactur-
ing increased, with the opening of 2 new tortilleras (small factories
to make tortillas), and 3 new nixtamal mills (nixtamal is a type of
corn dough).
In the domestic sector, total fuelwood consumption for cooking de-
creased; this is associated to an increase in the purchasing of tortillas
in the tortilleras, and the introduction of LPG stoves (that are used
along with traditional wood stoves). Access to drinking water at
home, household electrication, and the increasing penetration of elec-
tric appliances such as washing machines reduced the need for women
labor, which previously had to transport water from distant locations,
and doing the laundry by hand also several miles away from the village.
Televisions and radios increased their numbers, and some households
have access to computers. Communication also improved due to an ex-
tension of the telephone grid into a fth of total homes (21%), and
through the acquisition of mobile phones (22%) (Table 2).
In the service sector a private transport system for both people and
cargo was consolidated, as well as a public passenger transport system
based on gasoline vehicles: as a result the number of cars and trucks in-
creased their numbers signicantly. A commercial sector emerged from
the increasing number of service-related small businesses.
Changes in energy use in Cheranatzicurin
Final energy matrix analysis by sources and sectors
Table 3 shows the energy sources matrix of Cheranatzicurin corre-
sponding to the year 1986 and the year 2012. The total consumption
466 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470

Table 3 25000
Energy-source matrix of Cheranatzicurin, 19862012.
20000
Sources 1986 2012 1986 2012

GJ GJ ton CO2 ton CO2

GJ/year
15000 1986
Animal power 607 34
Fuelwood 25,467 18,404 n.a. n.a. 2012
Electricity 438 1464 86 233 10000
LPG 74 1770 5 113
Gasoline 1077 5219 75 362 5000
Diesel 1277 454 95 34
Total 28,940 27,353 260 741
0
Note: We assume the fuelwood consumption is renewable, and thus there are no net CO2 Productive (inc. Processing and Household Transportation
emissions. We did not quantify in this study the emissions of other greenhouse gases Agriculture) Services
such as methane, that are emitted as the result of the incomplete combustion of fuelwood
in open res (Johnson et al., 2008). Fig. 2. Evolution of nal energy use by sector in Cheranatzcurin 19862012 (%).

of nal energy diminished from 28,940 GJ (which corresponds to a
power of 380 W/capita) in 1986 to 27,353 GJ (which corresponds to
a power of 340 W/cap). Fuelwood is still the most important source
of nal energy despite its decrease from 88% to 67% of total demand
in the study period. Gasoline and diesel remained second, increasing
their importance almost three times, from 8% to 21%. Animal power
practically disappeared (from 2.1% to 0.1%). Electricity increased al-
most four times (from 1.5% to 5.3%), while LPG increased its share
from 0.25% to 6.5% of total energy demand.
As stated above, the use of electricity and fossil fuels resulted from
an important increase in the number of appliances, as well as an in-
crease in the number of tractors and vehicles for private and public
transportation (Table 2). The community is becoming modernized,
both because of the nature of the nal energy consumed, and the in-
creased amount of technical devices commonly used in cities. At the
same time, the share of renewable energy in nal energy decreased
from 90% in 1986 to 68% in 2012 (Fig. 1).
The nal energy analysis by sector shows the growth of services
and transport (from 6.5% in 1986 to 19% in 2012), in contrast to the
collapse of the productive sector (14.2% to 1.8%) and the constant
dominant share of the household sector (77% in both years) (see
Fig. 2). In terms of global impacts, the increase in the share of fossil
fuels in the primary energy mix resulted in an increase in CO2 emis-
sions from 260 ton in 1986 to 741 ton in 2012 (Table 3).
Energy consumption by end-use
Tables 4A and 4B show the detailed village energy consumption
matrix by end-use, for the years 1986 and 2012, respectively. Table 5
summarizes the energy consumption for the most representative
100%
90%
80%
70%
Diesel
60% Gasoline
50% LP Gas
Electricity
40%
Fuelwood
30%
Animal Power
20%
10%
0%
1986 2012
Fig. 1. Evolution of nal energy use by energy source in Cheranatzcurin 19862012 (%).
end-uses in the period of study. Fig. 3 shows the change in nal energy
use by end-use and fuel between 1986 and 2012 also for the most im-
portant end-uses. We can readily see the very high-dependence and
resilience of fuelwood for cooking and water heating, the virtual aban-
donment of animal power in most productive tasks; the replacement
of fuelwood (ocote) for lighting by electricity. It is also interesting to
note the emergence of three new end-uses, two brought about by elec-
tricity (refrigeration and clothes washing machines, this last also made
possible by access to tap water), and one end-use, private car transpor-
tation, made possible by the increasing access to cars and pick-up trucks
in the study period.
It is interesting to note that despite a 7% decrease from 1986 to 2012,
cooking remains by far the most important energy use of the communi-
ty (68% of nal energy in 2012 without accounting for the tortilleras
and nixtamal mills). The decrease in cooking energy use is associated
to the penetration of LPG stoves which now reach 35% of total
households and also to fuelwood savings from the increasing purchas-
ing of tortillas in the local tortilleras. It is interesting to note, however,
that households that adopt LPG do not switch completely to it, but
rather continue using fuelwood, in a process that has been named
fuel stacking (Masera and Navia, 1997; Masera et al., 2000). If a com-
plete fuel switching to LPG would have occurred as predicted by the en-
ergy ladder approach (Hosier, 2004), fuelwood use would have been
reduced by 35% already, contrasting with the actual 7% that has been
observed. In fact, it has been estimated that households adopting LPG
save at most 50% of fuelwood, and many households less than 20% or
nothing of this fuel (Berrueta et al., 2008; Masera and Navia, 1997).
Tortilla making, a task entirely done with fuelwood when made
domestically, by itself constitutes the most important energy end-
use with 26% of the total energy demand in 2012. Tortilla making
as well as the rest of cooking tasks is done in open res, which
have very low efciencies and lead to very high indoor air pollution
(Armendariz et al., 2010). Therefore, despite the increased penetra-
tion of LPG stoves, the dissemination of efcient wood burning cook-
stoves remain a high-priority for saving energy and improve the
living conditions of local women. Other important end-uses include
private transportation (16% of total use in 2012), water heating (7%,
which is also done with fuelwood), and corn production (2%). The dif-
ferent domestic uses of electricity account for 3.2% of total use in the
village, and grew 22 fold in the study period.
Modernization is the result of people's preferences which re-
ect a dynamic push and pull process between traditions and
innovation but also a reection of larger restrictions imposed by
the broader social, economical and political conditions. For example,
a rapid abandonment of draft animals in favor of tractors occurred
in the last 10 years, driven more by the insecurity conditions prevail-
ing in the area than by the need to increase labor productivity in ag-
riculture (to support the previous statement, in addition to draft
animals, livestock was reduced from 600 heads in 1986 to a few
dozens in 2012).
 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470 467

Table 4A
Final use energy matrix of Cheranatzicurin, 1986.

Sector End-use Task Enal (GJ) ext Exnal (GJ) q Euse (GJ) Exmin (GJ)

Agriculture 775 984 131 131

Animal traction Work M 236 1 236 0.1 1 0.10 24 24
Tractor Work M 506 0.72 703 0.2 1 0.14 101 101
Pick-up truck Work M 32 0.72 45 0.2 1 0.14 6 6
Productive 3339 3339 555 232
Resin extraction
Animal traction Work M 65 1 65 0.1 0 0.10 6 6
Sale of Fuelwood 0
Animal traction Work M 113 1 113 0.1 1 0.10 11 11
Sale of tortillas
Fuelwood for tortillas Heat B 2538 1 2538 0.17 0.45 0.08 432 194
Fuelwood for nixtamal Heat D 624 1 624 0.17 0.19 0.03 106 20
Processing 167 530 108 93
Saw mill Work S 8 0.23 8 0.81 1 0.186 7 2
Polishing Work S 5 0.23 22 0.81 1.0 0.19 4 4
Grinding Work S 101 0.23 437 0.81 1.0 0.19 82 82
Tortilleria
LPG Heat B 14 0.7 19 0.6 0.5 0.19 8 4
Fuelwood Heat D 37 1 37 0.17 0.2 0.03 6 1
Electricity Work S 1 0.2 6 0.81 1.0 0.19 1 1
Household 22,763 23,615 3809 1177
Tortillas
Fuelwood for tortillas Heat B 7131 1 7131 0.17 0.45 0.08 1212 546
Fuelwood for nixtamal Heat D 1741 1 1741 0.17 0.19 0.03 296 56
Other fuelwood Heat C 10661 1 10661 0.17 0.22 0.04 1812 399
Cooking with gas Heat C 123 0.72 171 0.6 0.22 0.10 74 16
Bathing Heat D 1788 1 1788 0.17 0.19 0.03 304 58
Lighting
Electricity Heat A 208 0.23 900 0.08 0.87 0.02 17 14
Fuelwood (ocote) Heat A 883 1 883 0.05 0.87 0.04 44 38
Recreation Heat A 34 0.23 147 0.9 1 0.21 31 31
Collecting fuelwood
Animal traction Work M 150 1 150 0.1 1 0.10 15 15
Obtaining Water
Animal traction Work M 44 1 44 0.1 1 0.10 4 4
Transportation 1816 2522 363 363
Passenger transport
Diesel trucks Work M 295 0.72 410 0.2 1 0.14 59 59
Gasoline trucks Work M 164 0.72 227 0.2 1 0.14 33 33
Transport of goods
Diesel trucks Work M 476 0.72 661 0.2 1 0.14 95 95
Gasoline trucks Work M 881 0.72 1223 0.2 1 0.14 176 176
Services 81 350 3 3
Business lighting Heat A 11 0.23 46 0.03 0.87 0.01 0 0
Public lighting Heat A 68 0.23 294 0.03 0.87 0.01 2 2
School lighting Heat A 1 0.23 6 0.03 0.87 0.01
School TV Heat A 1 0.23 3 0.9 1 0.21 1 1
Total 28,940 31,340 4970 2000

Thermodynamic analysis
From a global perspective the village primary energy (and nal
exergy) use increased by 12% while the nal energy decreased also
by 5%, from 1986 to 2012. Useful energy and minimum exergy in-
creased 24% and 43% between these two years, respectively (Table 6).
First-law efciencies
As a system, the community still operates at a very low rst-law ef-
ciency, although in the period analyzed, it increased from 17% to 23%.
The rst-law or device efciency ranges from less than 1% for fuel-
wood burnt for lighting (named ocote), to 85% of electrical motors.
The open res used for cooking have 17% efciency, while improved
cookstoves reach 30% or more (Berrueta et al., 2008). LPG cookstoves
device efciency is 60%, which is reduced to 40% when external losses
are accounted for. The main improvements in end-use efciency oc-
curred in lighting, as currently virtually all of the incandescent bulbs
have been replaced by compact uorescent lamps (CFL). The efciency
of CFL is estimated at 36%, which taking into account the external ef-
ciency of generation and distribution of electricity (23%), adds up to a
combined efciency of 8%, which is still 4 times larger than that of
ocote and the combined efciency of incandescent light bulbs (2%).
Second-law efciencies
The analysis according to the second-law of thermodynamics al-
lows comparing the minimum exergy required for satisfying a given
thermodynamic task associated to an end-use, with the actual exergy
consumed. Tables 7A and 7B present a summary where the end-uses
have been added together into generic thermodynamic tasks, corre-
sponding to heat and work. The heating tasks have been divided
into ve categories or qualities: a temperature of 2800 C has
been associated to CFLs, which corresponds to the dominant wave-
length of their visible radiation; the cooking tasks are evaluated at two
different temperatures (250 C, and 8295 C) and the refrigeration
task is assigned a temperature of 5 C. The work has been divided into
stationary and mobile. Stationary work comprises the electric mill oper-
ations, water pumping, and laundry, while mobile work is done by draft
animals and vehicles (cars, trucks, and tractors).
The second-law efciencies of the different end-uses are in the range
of 3% to 19%, which shows a poor coupling between the type of energy
468 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470

Table 4B
End-use energy matrix, Cheranatzicurin, 2012.

Sector End-use Task Enal (GJ) ext Exnal (GJ) q Euse (GJ) Exmin (GJ)

Agriculture 472 649 93 93

Tractor Work M 454 0.72 630 0.2 1.00 0.14 91 91
Animal traction Work M 18 1 18 0.1 1.00 0.10 2 2
Processing 168 706 135 132
Saw mill Work S 8 0.23 35 0.81 1.00 0.19 6 6
Grinding Work S 152 0.23 656 0.81 1.00 0.19 123 123
Tortillera
LPG Heat B 8 0.72 11 0.6 0.45 0.19 5 2
Electritcity Work S 1 0.23 4 0.81 1.00 0.19 1 1
Household 21,084 24,675 5571 1591
Tortillas
Fuewood for tortillas Heat B 6028 1 6028 0.17 0.45 0.08 1025 461
Fuelwood fornitxamal Heat D 1507 1 1507 0.17 0.19 0.03 256 49
Other fuelwood Heat C 9042 1 9042 0.17 0.22 0.04 1537 338
Cooking with gas Heat C 1770 0.72 2458 0.6 0.22 0.10 1062 234
Bathing Heat D 1827 1 1827 0.17 0.19 0.03 311 59
Clothes washing Work S 74 0.23 320 0.85 1.00 0.20 63 63
Lighting Heat A 192 0.23 831 0.36 0.87 0.07 69 60
Refrigeration Heat E 323 0.23 1397 0.85 0.07 0.01 969 68
Recreation (TV) Heat E 226 0.23 976 0.9 1.00 0.21 203 203
Recreation (radio) Heat E 55 0.23 237 0.9 1.00 0.21 49 49
Collecting fuelwood
Animal traction Work M 16 1 16 0.1 1.00 0.10 2 2
Pick up trucks Work M 25 0.72 35 0.2 1.00 0.14 5 5
Transportation 5194 7214 1039 1039
Passenger transport
Gasoline trucks Work M 543 0.72 754 0.2 1.00 0.14 109 109
Transport of goods
Gasoline trucks Work M 240 0.72 333 0.2 1.00 0.14 48 48
Private transport
CCars and pick up trucks Work M 4412 0.72 6127 0.2 1.00 0.14 882 882
Service 434 1880 63 59
Business lighting Heat E 10 0.231 43 0.36 0.87 0.07 4 3
Public lighting Heat E 368 0.231 1593 0.08 0.87 0.02 29 26
School lighting Heat E 0 0.231 0 0.08 0.87 0.02 0 0
School TV Heat E 0 0.231 0 0.9 0.00 0.00 0 0
Water pumping Work S 56 0.231 244 0.5394 1.00 0.12 30 30
Total 27,353 35,123 6910 2913

Notes to Tables 4A and 4B. The tables show the energy consumption by end-use. We have followed the same conventions as described in Masera and Dutt (1991). In particular, the
nine agricultural tasks (i.e., ploughing, seeding, harvesting) have been condensed for the sake of space. Not shown are also the energy use by end-use in raw units. Human work was
not included in the energy calculations. For energy consumption, we have used the following formulae: Enal = (energy equivalent)*(consumption in kind); ext = external efcien-
cy (outside the village); ext = external efciency (outside the village); rst-law efciency of the device; Euse = (Enal) * ; Exnal = Enal/ext; q = Carnot factor of the end-use;
= second-law efciency; Exmin = * (Exnal).
We have subdivided the two fundamental thermodynamic tasks: Heat and work, according to the following convention: mobile work (Work M); stationary work (Work S); heat at
2800 C (used for lighting and recreation (TV, radio) (Heat A); heat at 250 C (Heat B); heat at 95 C (Heat C); heat from 70 to 82 C (Heat D); Heat at 5 C (refrigeration) (Heat E).
We have used the following conversion factors in the calculation of nal energy and useful energy consumption (values are the same for 1986 and 2012 unless noted): (i) energy
conversions of the sources: animal energy 9.6 MJ/h (Revelle, 1976); fuelwood 15.6 MJ/kg (Geller and Dutt, 1983); L.P. gas 27.7 kcal/kg, gasoline 34.4 MJ/l, diesel 38.7 kcal/l,
electricity 3.6 MJ/kWh (Alonso and Rodrguez, 1985); (ii) efciencies of conversion technologies: animal power 0.10 considering only the metabolic efciency for the
end-use- (Revelle, 1976); three stone res 0.17 (Dutt et al., 1989); gas stove 0.60; vehicles 0.20 (Chapman et al., 1974); electric motor + mech. implements 0.81 (Leckie et al.,
1981); refrigeration and washing machines 0.85 (we included only the efciency of the electric motor, Ayres et al., 2004. Water pumping 0.54 (combined efciency of electric
motor and pump, SENER, 2004); incandescent bulbs 0.08 (Schutz, 1981); lighting with Wood 0.01 (assumed); compact uorescent lights (CFL) 0.36 (PROFECO, 2012) television
and radio 0.90 (assumed); (iii) external efciencies: electricity 0.23 * 0.30 generation * 0.77 * distribution, Schutz, 1981) oil products 0.72 (0.80 renery * 0.90 distribution).

provided by available energy sources and the type of energy required by The smallest second-law efciencies are found in heating tasks at
the end-use tasks. Overall, the second law efciency of the village is still low temperatures, like in cooking tasks, which are around 100 C, and
very low, and improved poorly from 1986 to 2012 (from 6% to 8%). where the source is enthalpy which involves combustion heat
delivered at a much higher temperature. This is why the second-law
Table 5 efciency of open res is of only 4%, improving only to 6% for LPG
Energy consumed in selected end-uses (GJ/yr). stoves. This is to say that energy wise, modernization by LPG stove
End-uses 1986 2012 introduction does not reduce greatly the exergy waste (of course,
other features such as cleanliness of the fuel, etc. represent large
Cooking 19,656 18,347
Water heating 1788 1827
benets from these stoves, but here we focus exclusively on the
Domestic lighting 1091 192 energy dimension). The relative devaluation of heating tasks from a
Refrigeration 0 323 second-law perspective, implies that the relative shares of heat and
Clothes washing 0 74 work in terms of minimum exergy are 52% and 48% respectively in
Recreation (TV + Radio) 34 280
2012 (from a 69/31 split in 1986) rather than the 78/22 split that is
Public transport 1452 783
Private transport 363 4,412 obtained in terms of nal energy use for the same year (89/11 split
Corn production 775 472 in 1986). Hence, work is an energy need relatively larger than the
Total 28,940 27,353 one suggested by the nal energy analysis. The difference (mismatch)
Note: The nal energy consumed in the different end-uses do not add-up to the total between the quality of the energy sources and that of the energy
because there are many other end-uses not included in the Table. needs is reected by the fact that while 48% of the community's
 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470 469

Fig. 3. Final energy consumption by end-use and fuel in Cheranatzicurin 19862012 (GJ). Note, the values of the X axis are shown using a logarithmic scale.

needs (31% in 1986) corresponds to work, 99% (98% in 1986) of
the energy needs are satised by combustion processes (using fossil
fuels and fuelwood) at medium to high temperatures.
Opportunities for great improvements in the energy efciency of
the rural community still exist as the growing penetration of modern
technologies has not essentially improved the mismatch between
energy needs and energy sources.
Conclusions
The present study contributes to the understanding of the techni-
cal dimensions of the evolution of energy use in rural communities. It
provides an auxiliary tool for the design of more sustainable energy
patterns and the associated technologies in rural settings. Given that
one objective is to improve the matching between energy needs
and available energy resources, the disaggregation of energy use by
end-uses and their associated thermodynamic qualities can play a
crucial role for the implementation of sustainable energy strategies
for rural development.
An energy/exergy matrix based on rst and second law of thermo-
dynamic efciencies was constructed for the Mexican rural communi-
ty of Cheranatzicurin, for the years 1986 and 2012. The analysis
shows that energy continues to be used in a very inefcient way,
both for traditional and modern technologies, especially in terms of
the second-law efciency. Electricity, LPG, diesel and gasoline have
increased their share in nal energy use, implying better access to
energy services for local people but at the expense of a signicant in-
crease in the CO2 emissions from the community and more reliance
on non-renewable sources.
Interestingly enough, more than 25 years after the study conducted
by Masera and Dutt (1991) what they identied as the main challenge
in technological terms for developing country villages, i.e. the design of
technologies that are accessible to the rural poor, provide similar
versatility and effectiveness as the traditional technologies and, at the
same time, permit a more efcient use of available local resource still
holds true. The promise of sustainable energy access for all is still a long
way to go in these rural areas. In particular, improving access to clean
and more efcient cooking solutions such as improved cookstoves
which have been increasingly disseminated in the area with good results
(Masera et al., 2007) and the generation of local income opportunities
through the use of renewable technologies remain a priority.
We should also stress that the changes in the pattern of energy
consumption of the village have come as a result of the insertion
of Cheranatzicurin into the regional and global economies. As a
consequence of the loss of local productive activities, local people
have been forced to migrate to other places in search for income,
mainly to the US. The resulting money remittances from abroad
provided the possibility of acquisition of better energy services in
the household and transport sectors, which in general opened
the possibility for large savings of human labor in these sectors.
However, the above mentioned situation has led, globally speaking,
to a more accentuated dependence on fossil fuels that while pro-
viding tangible benets for local users on an energy basis practi-
cally counteracts the benets that come with the use of better
end-use technologies.
Table 7A
Energy consumption by quality in Cheranatzicurin 2012 (GJ/yr).

Energy quality E nal E use Ex nal Ex min

1. Heat 21,355 4824 25,951 1504

Table 6 78% 78% 74% 52%
Changes in energy use, exergy use and energy efciency (GJ/yr). 1.1 Heat at 2800 C (lighting and recreation) 850 354 3681 341
1.2 Heat at 250 C (tortillas) 6036 1029 6039 463
Parameter 1986 2012 Change 19862012 (%)
1.3 Heat at 8295 C (other and nixtamal) 14,146 2677 14,834 679
Final exergy 31,340 35,123 12% 1.5 Heat at 5 C (refrigeration) 323 969 1397 48
Final energy 28,940 27,353 5% 2. Work 5988 1361 9172 1361
Useful energy 4970 6910 24% 22% 22% 26% 48%
Minimum exergy 2000 2913 43% 2.1 Stationary 291 223 1258 223
17% 23% 32% 2.2 Mobile 5708 1138 7914 1138
6.4% 8.2% 28% Total 27,353 6910 35,123 2913
470 M. Martnez-Negrete et al. / Energy for Sustainable Development 17 (2013) 463470

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