Sustainability in the Dutch Power Sector - Greenpeace Nederland

13 Methodological Annex
13.1 “Renewable” vs. “Non-renewable” fuels and sustainability
considerations
In the breakdowns of companies’ fuel mixes for electricity generation and supply and in the
thematic fact sheets on companies’ investment in various electricity generation technologies,
SOMO makes a distinction between fuels and technologies that are considered “renewable”
and those that are “non-renewable”. In the public perception, corporate communications, and
even in scientific literature, the boundaries between these terms and what should be
classified as “renewable” is not always clear. For purposes of manageability and facilitating
comparison, but with the acknowledgement that it could be viewed as a simplification of a
very complex issue, this study makes a distinction between renewable and non-renewable
fuel sources; however, as outlined below, some fuels and technologies that are considered
as renewable are not necessarily sustainable. In the interests of transparency and clarity,
SOMO’s rationale for making the renewable/non-renewable distinction is outlined below for a
range of different fuels and technologies. These considerations rely heavily on a recent study
by Wilde-Ramsing that aimed to “define sustainable electricity provision”. 432 Table 53
provides an overview of the classification used by SOMO, with the reasoning for each fuel
type in the corresponding descriptions below.
Table 53: SOMO classification of “renewable” and “non-renewable” fuel types
Renewable
Non-renewable
Hydro (i.e. water)
Coal (including lignite and plants outfitted with CCS)
Wind
Natural gas
Solar
“Other” fossil fuels (e.g. diesel, fuel oil)
Biomass (except new investment in coal Nuclear
and gas plants with biomass co-firing
capacity)
Fossil fuels
Fossil fuels (e.g. coal, lignite, natural gas, diesel, fuel oil, gas oil) are non-renewable sources
of energy. Electricity generation technologies based on the combustion of fossil fuels
consume finite natural resources and thus transfer costs to future generations. Fossil fuel
combustion for electricity generation is also one of the largest sources of human-induced
emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and
nitrous oxide (N 2 0), which, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) 433 , are causing the Earth’s atmosphere to warm, altering climates in
irreversible ways. Due to its continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels, the electricity industry is
432
J. Wilde-Ramsing, Quality Kilowatts: A normative-empirical approach to the challenge of defining and providing
sustainable electricity in developing countries (Amsterdam and Oslo: SOMO and ProSus/SINTEF, June 2009)
http://somo.nl/publications-nl/Publication_3170-nl/view (4 September 2009).
433
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report”, (Valencia,
Spain, November 2007), (26 May 09).
Methodological Annex 94