Meeting Europe's renewable energy targets in harmony with - RSPB

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THE ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY OF EUROPE’S 2020 RENEWABLES PLANS 61 In general, energy saving measures, solar thermal, heat pumps and use of renewable electricity in vehicles are not expected to result in significant additional direct ecological impacts. A move to electric vehicles is important because of the ecological risks associated with biofuels, but overall demand for private transport must also be reduced through better public transport provision and measures to reduce the need to travel, such as urban planning. Both heat pumps and electric vehicles will increase electricity consumption – this underlines the importance of decarbonising Europe’s electricity supplies. BirdLife calls for greater ambition in the use of these technologies. Building-scale renewables will make an essential contribution in the transition to a low carbon Europe, but decentralised sources and energy savings will not be sufficient to make large-scale renewables and new power lines unnecessary (see Box 12). This is particularly true if renewable electricity is to provide for transport and heating needs. 3.1.1 ENERGY SAVING The NREAPs also include details of additional energy efficiency policies, and estimate how much energy these will save relative to the “business as usual” (BAU) scenario. In total, these additional measures identified in the NREAPs are estimated to lower overall energy consumption in the EU in 2020 by 10% (saving 128 Mtoe per year by 2020) relative to BAU. To give a sense of the magnitude of this saving, total energy consumption in the EU 27 in 2009 was just under 1114 Mtoe vii . With these additional energy saving policies, this is expected to grow only marginally to 1189 Mtoe in 2020. Figure 2 shows where these savings will be made, expressed in ktoe. Three quarters of the energy savings are accounted for by just five countries: France, Spain, Germany, Poland and Italy. FIGURE 2 National reductions in annual energy consumption in 2020 compared to reference scenarios resulting from additional energy savings measures indentified in NREAPs [ktoe] iv
62 MEETING EUROPE’S RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGETS IN HARMONY WITH NATURE Figure 3 shows the role energy saving is expected to play in each country, with some aiming higher than the overall EU figure of 10%. France and Bulgaria both aim to consume over 20% less energy in 2020 as a result of additional energy savings policies. Poland, Spain, Sweden, Romania and Latvia also plan to go beyond the EU average. FIGURE 3 Figure 3: Energy saving plans of the EU-27 States, comparing business as usual scenarios to their energy saving scenarios for 2020 [%] viii The statistics are difficult to interpret as the EU Member States have widely varying starting positions in terms of current energy efficiency and also existing policies or targets. However, they suggest that many EU countries could do significantly more to save energy. In particular, countries such as Belgium, Hungary, Portugal and the UK urgently need to revise their plans, taking the lead from countries such as France and Bulgaria. 3.1.2 SOLAR THERMAL In 2005 solar thermal accounted for 1 Mtoe (0.1%) of the EU’s energy consumption. By 2020 an additional 5 Mtoe of the energy consumed in the EU 27 will be provided by this technology, bringing its share of total energy consumed up to 0.5%. On average in Europe, solar thermal is expected to grow by 10 to 15% per annum between 2010 and 2020, and should account for 1.2% of total heating and cooling energy demand in 2020 (EREC, 2011a). As Figure 4 illustrates, and as one might expect, many southern European countries plan to make greater use of solar thermal technology. However, Germany and Austria also expect significant contributions from this technology, and Poland ix and Belgium recognise the potential for this technology in Northern Europe. BirdLife recommends much greater use of this technology across Europe, and calls for northern Member States that have neglected the potential for widespread solar thermal to follow the lead of Germany and increase their ambition accordingly. 3.1.3 HEAT PUMPS The NREAPs suggest heat pumps will provide 1% of total energy consumed in 2020, supplying 12 Mtoe compared to just 1 Mtoe in 2005. Heat pumps represent 2.6% of the planned EU heating and cooling mix in 2020 (EREC, 2011a).
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MEETING EUROPE’S RENEWABLE ENERGY
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Meeting Europe’s Renewable Energy
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CHAPTER THREE THE ECOLOGICAL SUSTAI
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6 RUNNING HEAD LOREM ISPSUM DOLOR C
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8 MEETING EUROPE’S RENEWABLE ENER
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NATIONAL AND EU
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REFERENCES 129 Daunt, F. (2006) Mar
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REFERENCES 131 Lonsdale, D., Pautas
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ENDNOTES 133 ENDNOTES i Chris Huhne
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Birdlife European and Central Asian
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Meeting Europe's renewable energy targets in harmony with - RSPB

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