Analysing how energy is delivered from its primary sources to final users, it may be seen that the evolution of technology, driven by economic considerations, has mainly rewarded those systems that have intense energy fluxes through their main sections. On the other hand, renewable energy sources are prevented from being widespread by their low energy density. If a high energy flux is a recognized target for energy use, one may try to characterise the various devices encountered along the energy path according to the concentration obtained of the energy flow. In this way, apart from measuring the energy loss suffered within a given device, it can be decided if this loss is adequate with respect to the gain in terms of energy density. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.