Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 4. Case Study: Spain 205
Nearly half of the measures (45%) are taken in the energy supply sector, due
to a significant potential for fuel shift (from coal to natural gas). Households
contribute around 18% to the reductions in Spain. The percentage from the
transport sector is small compared to this sector’s emissions, because reduction
measures are relatively expensive in this sector. Although innovative measures
may happen here, as the plug-in hybrid electric cars.
Figure 4 – 21 shows the contribution of technological options to the
greenhouse gas emission reductions for 2020 for Spain 1 . Within the total
portfolio of measures increased energy efficiency improvements and CHP
(41%) and fuel switch (33%) (using natural gas instead of coal) play a
particularly important role. A less important option in 2020 is carbon capture
and storage (CCS).
It should be noted that beyond 2020, the contribution of renewables and CCS
can become more important (as also illustrated in Van Vuuren et al., 2007a),
whereas the contribution of the energy efficiency can become smaller. The main
reason for the later is that the increasing share of zero carbon energy supply
options, like renewables, reduces the effectiveness of energy efficiency
measures.
Measures in the category ‘Savings and CHP’ count for a large percentage in
Spain (41%); they apply mainly to households and the service sectors, which are
relatively large source of emissions here. Measures related to a fuel shift
account for a large proportion (33%), as Spain’s energy production is relatively
carbon-intensive and more inefficient compared to the EU-15. A fairly large
number of power plants in Spain run on coal and therefore the shift from coal to
gas has a large potential. The relatively small share of abatement from
renewables (10%) is because generally they are more expensive than measures
such as fuel shift, savings and CHP.
1 Den Elzen et al. (2007b) present an extensive review of the abatement measures relating to the various
categories.
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008