Bar: a unit of pressure roughly equal to an atmosphere. (A bar is 100,000 newtons per square metre and an atmosphere is 101,325 newtons per square metre.)
BAU: business as usual.
Bbls: barrels.
B/d: barrels per day.
BWR: Boiling Water Reactor.
C: carbon.
Ca: calcium.
CCGT: Combined Cycle Gas Turbine.
CHP: Combined Heat and Power.
Cwt: hundredweight.
Ebcus: emissions-backed currency units.
Entropy: a measure of the extent to which the energy in a system is available for doing work. Entropy increases as energy is dispersed when it is used.
ERE: Energy Requirement of Energy - the energy required to produce energy.
GER: Gross Energy Requirement.
GHG: Greenhouse gas.
Gt: giga-tonnes. Giga stands for 1000 million.
GW: gigawatt, equal to 1,000 megawatts.
H: hydrogen.
HMC: human-made capital.
IFIAS: International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Study. IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Joule: a unit of work or energy. It is the work done when a force of one newton moves an object one metre. It is equal to 4,187 calories.
K: potassium.
KJ: kilojoules or 1000 joules.
LNG: liquid natural gas.
Mecu: million ecu. An ecu is now considered equal to a euro.
Mt: million tonnes.
MW: megawatt. Amegawatt is a 1,000 kilowatts.
MWe: a megawatt of electrical energy.
MWth: a megawatt of thermal (heat) energy.
N: nitrogen.
Na: sodium.
NEA: Nuclear Energy Agency, part of the OECD.
NGL: natural gas liquids.
O: oxygen.
P: phosphorus.
PJ: petajoules. The prefix petastands for 10 to the power of 15.
psi: pounds per square inch, a measure of pressure.
PV: Photovoltaic.
PWR: Pressurised Water Reactor.
$GDP: Gross Domestic Product expressed in dollars.
S: sulphur.
SEK: Swedish crowns.
SERs: Special Emission Rights.
SRC: Short Rotation Coppice.
SWU - separative work unit, a measure of the effort needed to separate the U-235 and U-238 atoms in natural uranium in order to create a final product that is richer in U-235 atoms.
Tcf: trillion cubic feet.
TCO2: tonnes of carbon dioxide.
TNO: the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research..
Toe: tonnes oil equivalent.
TWh: terawatt-hour, equal to a million megawatts or a billion kilowatts.
UNFCCC: United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change.
W/cap: watts per capita