(Un)fit for 55! Ohne eine verschärfte Governance-Verordnung sind die Klimaziele 2030 nicht zu erreichen

The European Commission's “Fit for 55” package of July 2021 provides for a significant increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency targets in the European Union (EU). However, the EU’s competences in the energy sector are severely limited and subject to sovereignty. Already in 2018, the EU adopted a Governance Regulation that provides for a hardening of the otherwise only soft governance in the areas of renewable energies and energy efficiency due to the lack of European competences. It is intended to ensure that the Commission's recommendations for improving national energy and climate plans are implemented by the member states. An analysis of the quality of implementation of these recommendations now shows that this has a positive effect in areas with harder soft governance but still needs improvement. Increasing the targets of regulatory action cannot be successful without revising the Governance Regulation and hardening soft governance along with it. Otherwise, the EU is not fit for its 55 percent target in 2030.

Industrial Energy Efficiency Towards Green Deal Transition. Case of Latvia.

Energy efficiency policy has been one of the European Union top priorities for decades and will continue to play a vital role in the next 10 years with the introduction of The Clean energy for all Europeans. Likewise, in Latvia energy efficiency has been given high priority; however, the energy efficiency targets for industry has lacked ambitions. This research focuses on evaluating the Latvian industrial energy efficiency policy using top-down approach and benchmarking energy intensity of Latvian industry to the average of the European Union’s. Results confirm that on average Latvian industry consumes 2.6 times more energy to produce the same amount of value added compared to the average in the European Union; however, every saved energy unit in Latvia would save twice less CO2 emissions considering already largely decarbonized energy mix. In the spotlights of the Green Deal proposed by the European Commission, much higher contribution in terms of CO2 reduction and energy efficiency will be expected from the industry. Nevertheless, energy efficiency targets for Latvian industry should be sector-specific, separately addressing CO2 intensive sectors, and non-intensive CO2 sectors with low added value.

Sustainable Development and Competition: new evidence from EU countries

In this paper we present energy efficiency targets indicators of sustainable development and we discuss the role of competition, on promoting and enhancing sustainability and pricing issues. For this purpose, we present statistical evidence of energy efficiency targets indicators, we highlight the degree of competition of electrical markets in various member states and we present the effect of the degree of competition on electrical prices and energy efficiency targets. The empirical results indicate that the higher the degree of competition in electrical markets, the lower the electrical prices. Furthermore, less concentrated electrical markets exhibit higher rates of greenhouse gas emissions and share of renewable energy in total energy consumption than in the less competitive markets. Even though the empirical results do not reveal a clear-cut picture in regard with the effect of competition on energy efficiency indicator, EU28 countries have a primary energy consumption of almost 1.526 Mtoe in 2019 and they are quite close to achieve the energy efficiency target of Europe 2020 strategy implemented by Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency.

Empowering Small Electricity Consumers to Help European Member States to Reach the Energy Efficiency Targets of the European Union

In Europe, small electricity consumers are not using the full potential offered by smart meters. Although the European Union requires Member States to provide consumers with their energy usage data, small consumers are not using this data for improving their energy efficiency. This paper proposes: first, the standardization of the electrical load curve offered to small energy consumers at European level. Second, the use of open innovation challenges as a policy instrument in the European Union to improve the energy efficiency of the small electricity consumers and to encourage the development of new market niches. Finally, the paper quantifies how ICT energy efficiency solutions for small electricity consumers can contribute to the achievement of the 2020 European Union energy efficiency targets.

Empowering Decision Makers to Avoid the Oversizing of Building Service Systems

Oversizing of building service systems has a direct impact on building efficiency and operational costs. The research of this paper highlights several major contributors to the issue of oversizing. A key factor is the excessive and uncoordinated application of design margins applied during the multiple stages of a building services project; others include, a lack of communication and transparency across the various stakeholder groups, and the use of vague or unreliable data upon which initial project requirements are based. The impact of these factors on system performance and cost, and how these can impede on a building's ability to meet energy efficiency targets are analysed and discussed.The paper emphasises the need to develop robust processes that capture the scope and rationale for the margins applied, and to communicate this knowledge in a clear and unambiguous format, to all project stakeholders. The development of flexible and alternative design solutions that apply diversity principles, such as different backup systems to provide resilience rather than the traditional ‘like-for- like’ redundancy solutions, are also explored.

Impacts of Photovoltaic Farms on the Environment in the Romanian Plain

Under the European Union (EU) energy efficiency targets that Romania has assumed, increasing the share of solar energy has been one of the main points to be considered. The most important solar energy resources are found in the lowlands and low hills in southern and south-eastern parts of the country. The current paper is focused on the Romanian Plain, which has the best environmental conditions to support the development of photovoltaic (PV) farms. One hundred and ten PV farms have been identified and mapped which cover a total area of 1393 hectares. Although it provides a clean and sustainable energy source, the related environmental implications of PV farms could be either positive or negative. In this study, some of the main categories of impacts have been selected for identification and analysis of their environmental consequences. Several indicators have been computed: the share of PV farms from the main land use/cover categories and main soil types, and the distance of PV farms to forests, water bodies, or protected areas. The overall results of the study reveal the current and potential impacts of PV farms in order to understand the interactions between the environment and the use of renewable energy sources and further support science-based solutions for sustainable development.

Analysing the Energy Efficiency Renovation Rates in the Dutch Residential Sector

The housing stock has a major share in energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the Netherlands. CO2 emissions increased 2.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2018. Higher CO2 emissions were principally due to raised gas consumption for heating in the residential and service sector1. Energy efficiency renovations can contribute considerably in reducing energy consumption and achieving the EU and national energy efficiency targets. However, based on recent research2, the renovation rates in the Dutch social housing sector are not adequate to achieve the energy efficiency targets. Moreover, the deep renovation rates are almost negligible in this sector. The Dutch housing stock consists of the owner-occupied sector and rental sector (social housing and private rental houses) with shares equal to 69.4% and 30.6%, respectively. Considering the major share of the housing sector in energy consumption, the aim of the current study is to evaluate and compare the renovation rates in these sectors and the potential contribution of each one in achieving the energy efficiency targets. By renovation rate, we mean the percentage changes in the number of the identical houses moving from one energy label to the more efficient energy labels. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS) databases are used to conduct the statistical analysis. The results show that the renovation rates are almost the same in these three sectors, despite the expectation of much higher renovation rates in the social housing sector.

DEA BASED APPROACH TO SET ENERGY EFFICIENCY TARGET UNDER PAT FRAMEWORK: A CASE OF INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY

Aim: Propose a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based approach to set energy efficiency targets under the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) framework of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Design / Research methods: We adopt input-oriented non-controllable DEA model with variable return to scale DEA Conclusions / findings: Due to the implication of in-house energy conversion, we estimate separate energy efficiency targets based on “purchased energy” as well as “process energy”. The later accounts for energy finally used in the production process after in-house energy conversion. Originality / value of the article: The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in India has introduced a market based energy efficiency mechanism under the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) framework. Under this mechanism, energy efficiency certificates can be traded across eight identified sectors thus bringing cost effectiveness to achieve the energy efficiency targets. To implement the scheme, differentiated energy efficiency targets have been set using baseline specific energy consumption. This approach does not account for technical and operational aspects like vintage, scale, output mix and input mix. This study proposes an alternative target setting method based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which takes into account some of the above mentioned technical and operational differences across the industrial plants. A comparative assessment highlights the efficacy of DEA methodology in implementation of the PAT scheme. We estimate energy efficiency targets based on “purchased energy” as well as “process energy”, i.e. that used finally in the production process. Implications of the research: BEE may adopt the suggested approach to set energy efficiency targets for subsequent cycles under the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) framework.