Low-carbon technologies in 10 countries
Brussels, 14 February 2014
Table of Contents
Low-carbon technologies in 10 countries 1
Introduction 2
Annex I – Overview of the energy mix in 10 countries 2
Czech Republic 2
France 3
Germany 3
Greece 3
Italy 3
The Netherlands 4
Norway 4
Portugal 4
Spain 5
The UK 5
Annex II - How far from the emission reduction and RES targets? 6
Czech Republic 6
France 6
Germany 7
Greece 7
Italy 7
The Netherlands 8
Norway 8
Portugal 8
Spain 8
The UK 9
Annex III Place of the technologies in the low-carbon portfolio of the countries 10
Czech Republic 10
France 11
Germany 12
Greece 14
Italy 15
The Netherlands 17
Norway 18
Portugal 19
Spain 20
The UK 21
Annex IV Glossary 24
Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) 24
Land availability 24
Food versus fuel 24
ANNEX V References 25
Introduction
R&Dialogue is a European project with that aims to improve the dialogue on how to achieve a low-carbon society. A dialogue between research and civil society communities. We aim to contribute to a joint vision towards a low-carbon society in Europe. Find more on the project, its 17 partners and recent activity on www.rndialogue.eu.
This report gives an overview of the current state of play of low-carbon technologies in the 10 R&Dialogue countries. It is to give the R&Dialogue consortium and the 10 National Dialogue Councils a quick overview of key information of other countries.
Annex I – Overview of the energy mix in 10 countries
Czech Republic
The power generation in the Czech Republic is mainly dependent on fossil-fuelled power plants (mainly brown coal /lignite/; 61.5% in 2011) and nuclear power plants (32.3% in 2011). RES share on electricity consumption in 2011: 10.28 % (target 13.5 % in 2020).
Brown coal is the main primary energy resource in the Czech Republic; its production represented 42.8 million tonnes in 2011. The share of hard coal as a primary energy resource is small. More than 30 % of energy is generated in nuclear power plants, using imported highly enriched uranium as fuel (Czech Republic is mining uranium ore is not a “net” uranium fuel importer). Regarding hydrocarbon fuels the Czech Republic relies on import. The country’s economy is dependant on import of the crude oil, natural gas and enriched uranium. There is minimum import of fossil fuels used for power generation.
France
Primary energy supply has been steadily increasing in France, exhibiting a total increase of 21% over the period 1990-2004. Nuclear energy and oil dominate the primary supply of France with an aggregate share of 73%. The share of nuclear energy is much higher than the EU-27 average of 14%, having increased by 43% since 1990. Although the participation of natural gas in total energy supply has grown significantly in recent years (51% over the period 1990-2004), its share in the energy mix is still below the EU-27 average of 24%. Renewable sources have a contribution in primary energy supply at a level very close to the EU-27 average.[1]
Germany
The share of electricity produced from renewable energy in Germany has increased from 6.3 percent of the national total in 2000 to over 25 percent in the first half of 2012.[2]Renewable energy share of gross electricity consumption rose from 10% in 2005 to 20% in 2011. The main renewable electricity sources in first half of 2012 were:Wind energy36.6%, biomass 22.5%, hydropower 14.7%,photovoltaics (solar)21.2% and biowaste 3.6%. In 2010, investments totaling 26 billion euros were made in Germany’s renewable energies sector. According to official figures, some 370,000 people in Germany were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2010, especially in small and medium sized companies. This is an increase of around 8 percent compared to 2009 (around 339,500 jobs), and well over twice the number of jobs in 2004 (160,500). About two-thirds of these jobs are attributed to theRenewable Energy Sources Act[3].
Greece
Gross inland consumption has been steadily increasing in Greece over the period 1990-2004, showing a total increase of 37%. [4] Although during the last years, the total final energy consumption has been cut down mainly by the economic crisis, presenting a total decrease of 12.3% over the period 2008-2011 (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STAT-13-23_en.htm).
The share of oil in primary energy supply remains the highest in Greece, although it has declined from 77% in 1973 to 52% in 2010. Lignite is the second largest energy source, accounting for 27% of total primary energy supply in 2010, while natural gas provided 12% respectively. In the last years, the contribution of natural gas in the energy supply has presented the highest growth among all energy sources. Fossil fuels accounted for 91% of total primary energy supply in 2010. Renewable energy supply is relatively low. Biofuels and waste provided 4% of total energy supply in 2010, followed by hydropower with 2%, while solar and wind energy each contributed to 1% of total primary energy supply in 2010 respectively (Energy Policies of IEA Countries, Greece Review 2011, IEA).
Italy
With limited domestic energy sources, and no nuclear plants, Italy is highly dependent on energy imports and raw materials for production. The country has proven crude oil reserves of 0.7 billion barrels. However, the domestic production of approximately 100 000 barrels per day meets only a limited amount of domestic consumption. In the last decade, the declining production from Italy's natural gas fields and the growing domestic consumption have increased the country's reliance upon gas imports which arrive mainly by pipelines. Natural gas, renewable sources and solid fuels are gradually replacing oil in electricity generation. In 2010, 185,264 tonne of oil equivalent (TOE) were imported, while 30,109 of TOE were exported. As far as the exportation is concerned, to be noted is the increase of 2,9% for solid combustibles, of 3.7% for natural gas, and of 11,6% for oil. Exportation of energy from renewable sources also increased (20,7%), while the exportation of electricity decreased (-13,5%). Final energy consumption has been increasing, while industry remains the most energy-consuming sector.
Compared to a reduction in production of electricity of 5.2% from 2008 to 2011, technologies based on renewable energy have seen an increase in development. In particular, photovoltaic and wind powered energy have had a percentage increase of 5.493,6% and 102,7% respectively, from a production of 4.861,3 GWh to 9.856,4 GWh (wind powered) and from 193 GWh to 10.795,7 GWh (for photovoltaic).
Power installed in Italian plants, has increased for all types. In line with the data on energy production, there has been a notable increase of capacity where photovoltaic plants and wind powered plants are concerned. Biomass plants have seen a constant increase of 86,6% of installed power.
Renewable energy sources in Italy have arrived, during the first 8 months of 2013, to cover more than 30% of the national annual electricity needs. With an electricity demand of 212 972 GWh - a decrease of 3.8% compared to the same period in 2012 -67 948 GWh have been produced by green energy sources. Comparing August 2013 to August 2012, Terna (the power distribution manager) highlights a consistent growth for several energy sources: hydropower (+21.0%), photovoltaics (+16.4%) wind power (+22.4%) and geothermal energy (+5.0%), while for thermal generation there was a sharp decline (-18.8%) of the production.
Even though these increases would seem hopeful Italy is still far from being able to satisfy the energy demand and peaks in demand.
The Netherlands
Natural gas and oil dominate the Netherlands primary energy supply, with an aggregate 83% of total (data for 2007[5]). While the total supply has increased by 23% since 1990, the share of oil has increased by 29% and of natural gas by 19%. The shares of oil and gas are much higher than the EU-27 average values (38% and 24% respectively). Solid fuel consumption accounts for a 11% of total supply. Focusing on renewable energy sources an increase in total energy consumption is visible. The consumption of total renewable energy sources has more than doubled since 2000.
The Netherlands is the second largest producer of natural gas in the EU. Proved reserves were 1.45 trillion m3 at the end of 2005 (Source: BP Energy Statistics). Natural gas production showed an increase of 15% in 2004 compared to 2003. The Netherlands also produces small quantities of oil, nuclear and renewable energy (at an increasing rate).
Electricity generation is largely based on natural gas with a significant share also contributed by solid fuels. The participation of natural gas in electricity generation has been steadily increasing since 1990 and accounted for 64% of total gross generation in 2004. Smaller shares of electricity are produced from nuclear, oil and renewable energy sources. Wind capacity has increased significantly over the past decade.
Norway
Over 99% of the electricity production in mainland Norway is covered by hydropower plants. The total production of electricity from hydropower plants amounted to 135.3 TWh in 2007. There is also a large potential in wind power, offshore wind and wave power, as well as production of bio-energy from wood. However, as the bulk of the renewable Guarantees of Origin are exported, the average electricity mix of a Norwegian household was in 2010 only 36% renewable.[6]
As a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), binding RES targets are also set out for Norway as the RES directive is relevant to the EEA agreement. According to the EU`s renewable energy directive, Directive 2009/28/EC, Norway must increase its share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumtion to 67.5% by 2020. In the 2005 base year this share was 59.9% and reached 61% in 2011. Norway has submitted its National Renewable Energy Action Plan showing how it will attain this increase.
Portugal
Portugal is highly dependent on transforming imported fossil fuels to meet its energy needs, as it does not have any commercially exploitable non-renewable energy resources. The country has a high oil dependency (52 % in 2008). Natural gas and RES electricity are gaining ground but the energy mix is likely to hold over the next few years. Portugal’s considerable energy dependence is a great weakness of its economy, inasmuch as it makes the country very vulnerable to price fluctuations of energy products on the international markets, which have substantial impacts in the Portuguese trade balance.
In order to obviate that dependence, the Government adopted ambitious targets in terms of the use of renewable energies, aimed at making better use of endogenous resources and reducing the imports of fossil fuels.
The Portuguese evolution in the deployment of low-emission energy electricity technologies has been outstanding in the past decade: the wind capacity raised from less than 130 MW in 2001 to 4500 MW. By the end of 2011, a National Plan for the repowering and construction of additional 2000 MW of hydro power capacity is ongoing and targeted for 2020. As regards PV systems, both the domestic micro-generation systems and the large industrial PV plants have grown at a high pace in the recent years, but progress is now small, for lack of State support and provate investment capacity.
High enthalpy geothermal energy has grown weakly and is used only in the Azores islands. Biomass power plants struggle with unavailability / high cost of raw materials. A large bet on investing and supporting wave power technologies has not produced significant results.
A very important and successful strategy for LC electricity was the closure of nearly all fuel oil power plants, and the replacement of conventional carbon power plants by more advanced ones and especially by combined cycle natural gas power plants.
Various supports schemes to solar thermal systems have been launched from 2001 onwards. The area of solar thermal collectors has grown from a stable roughly 16 000 m² by 2001 to about 800 000 m² nowadays, but additional progress has stalled.
Surveys also indicate that biomass for space heating in residences is widely used, but it is not clear if there has been an increase or a decrease in the global use of this LC energy source.
As regards energy efficiency the panorama is not so sucessful as the introduction of RES. Energy efficiency in buildings has been the main target for the Government policies. This included the implementation of the EPDB Directive (building’s thermal certification) with ambitious technical specifications, as well as support schemes for efficient windows, insulation, and strict requirements for maintenance of stoves and boilers. Public procurement, supporting ESCOs and giving the example of intervention on buildings owned by the State are the most recent trends. However, the progress has been slow, due to economic crisis as well as because of the long renovation time of building and other equipment stocks. “Green” fiscal policies and pollution regulations have been successful for enhancing the efficiency in the transportation sector but are also currently being downplayed because of the economic crisis.
Spain
Despite the reduction of coal consumption in the period 2004-2010 an increase on the coal use of 1.98 % per year is targeted during the period 2010-2020. It is due to the foreseen deployment of CCS technology in the power production and industry.
Renewable energy now covers 11.3% of the primary energy demand, mainly wind, solar and biofuels, which in 2010 have had high levels of activity. After 2005 The Renewable Energy Plan 2005-2010 has promoted the use of renewable in power production, transport and building.