IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i6p3425-3433.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The unrecognized contribution of renewable energy to Europe's energy savings target

Author

Listed:
  • Harmsen, Robert
  • Wesselink, Bart
  • Eichhammer, Wolfgang
  • Worrell, Ernst

Abstract

We show that renewable energy contributes to Europe's 2020 primary energy savings target. This contribution, which is to a large extent still unknown and not recognized by policy makers, results from the way renewable energy is dealt with in Europe's energy statistics. We discuss the policy consequences and argue that the 'energy savings' occurring from the accounting of renewable energy should not distract attention from demand-side energy savings in sectors such as transport, industry and the built environment. The consequence of such a distraction could be that many of the benefits from demand-side energy savings, for example lower energy bills, increase of the renewable energy share in energy consumption without investing in new renewable capacity, and long-term climate targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80%, will be missed. Such distraction is not hypothetical since Europe's 2020 renewable energy target is binding whereas the 2020 primary energy savings target is only indicative.

Suggested Citation

  • Harmsen, Robert & Wesselink, Bart & Eichhammer, Wolfgang & Worrell, Ernst, 2011. "The unrecognized contribution of renewable energy to Europe's energy savings target," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3425-3433, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:6:p:3425-3433
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511002205
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Segers, Reinoud, 2008. "Three options to calculate the percentage renewable energy: An example for a EU policy debate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 3243-3248, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sousa, Tânia & Brockway, Paul E. & Cullen, Jonathan M. & Henriques, Sofia Teives & Miller, Jack & Serrenho, André Cabrera & Domingos, Tiago, 2017. "The Need for Robust, Consistent Methods in Societal Exergy Accounting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 11-21.
    2. Yearwood Travezan, Jessica & Harmsen, Robert & van Toledo, Gideon, 2013. "Policy analysis for energy efficiency in the built environment in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 317-326.
    3. Radu Lupu & Adrian Cantemir Călin & Cristina Georgiana Zeldea & Iulia Lupu, 2021. "Systemic Risk Spillovers in the European Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, October.
    4. Guo Li & Wenling Liu & Zhaohua Wang & Mengqi Liu, 2017. "An empirical examination of energy consumption, behavioral intention, and situational factors: evidence from Beijing," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 507-524, August.
    5. Grzegorz Ślusarz & Barbara Gołębiewska & Marek Cierpiał-Wolan & Jarosław Gołębiewski & Dariusz Twaróg & Sebastian Wójcik, 2021. "Regional Diversification of Potential, Production and Efficiency of Use of Biogas and Biomass in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Rokas Tamašauskas & Jolanta Šadauskienė & Dorota Anna Krawczyk & Violeta Medelienė, 2020. "Analysis of Primary Energy Factors from Photovoltaic Systems for a Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB): A Case Study in Lithuania," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Baldini, Mattia & Klinge Jacobsen, Henrik, 2016. "Optimal trade-offs between energy efficiency improvements and additional renewable energy supply: A review of international experiences," MPRA Paper 102031, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Ringel, Marc & Schlomann, Barbara & Krail, Michael & Rohde, Clemens, 2016. "Towards a green economy in Germany? The role of energy efficiency policies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1293-1303.
    9. Djula Borozan & Luka Borozan, 2018. "Analyzing total-factor energy efficiency in Croatian counties: evidence from a non-parametric approach," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 26(3), pages 673-694, September.
    10. Kveselis, Vaclovas & Dzenajavičienė, Eugenija Farida & Masaitis, Sigitas, 2017. "Analysis of energy development sustainability: The example of the lithuanian district heating sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 227-236.
    11. Kraan, Oscar & Chappin, Emile & Kramer, Gert Jan & Nikolic, Igor, 2019. "The influence of the energy transition on the significance of key energy metrics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 215-223.
    12. López-González, Luis M. & López-Ochoa, Luis M. & Las-Heras-Casas, Jesús & García-Lozano, César, 2018. "Final and primary energy consumption of the residential sector in Spain and La Rioja (1991–2013), verifying the degree of compliance with the European 2020 goals by means of energy indicators," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2358-2370.
    13. Solomon, Barry D. & Krishna, Karthik, 2011. "The coming sustainable energy transition: History, strategies, and outlook," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7422-7431.
    14. Rokas Tamašauskas & Jolanta Šadauskienė & Patrikas Bruzgevičius & Dorota Anna Krawczyk, 2019. "Investigation and Evaluation of Primary Energy from Wind Turbines for a Nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Batas Bjelić, Ilija & Rajaković, Nikola & Krajačić, Goran & Duić, Neven, 2016. "Two methods for decreasing the flexibility gap in national energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P3), pages 1701-1709.
    16. Honma, Satoshi & Hu, Jin-Li, 2014. "Industry-level total-factor energy efficiency in developed countries: A Japan-centered analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 67-78.
    17. Smit, Tycho A.B. & Hu, Jing & Harmsen, Robert, 2014. "Unravelling projected energy savings in 2020 of EU Member States using decomposition analyses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 271-285.
    18. Marta Ros Karlsdottir & Jukka Heinonen & Halldor Palsson & Olafur Petur Palsson, 2020. "High-Temperature Geothermal Utilization in the Context of European Energy Policy—Implications and Limitations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-27, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feng Dong & Yuling Pan, 2020. "Evolution of Renewable Energy in BRI Countries: A Combined Econometric and Decomposition Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Jansen, Jaap C. & Seebregts, Ad J., 2010. "Long-term energy services security: What is it and how can it be measured and valued?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1654-1664, April.
    3. Zhong-Hua Tian & Ze-Liang Yang, 2016. "Scenarios of Carbon Emissions from the Power Sector in Guangdong Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-14, August.
    4. López-González, Luis M. & López-Ochoa, Luis M. & Las-Heras-Casas, Jesús & García-Lozano, César, 2018. "Final and primary energy consumption of the residential sector in Spain and La Rioja (1991–2013), verifying the degree of compliance with the European 2020 goals by means of energy indicators," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2358-2370.
    5. Lauri, Pekka & Kallio, A. Maarit I. & Schneider, Uwe A., 2012. "Price of CO2 emissions and use of wood in Europe," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 123-131.
    6. Marta Ros Karlsdottir & Jukka Heinonen & Halldor Palsson & Olafur Petur Palsson, 2020. "High-Temperature Geothermal Utilization in the Context of European Energy Policy—Implications and Limitations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-27, June.
    7. Kraan, Oscar & Chappin, Emile & Kramer, Gert Jan & Nikolic, Igor, 2019. "The influence of the energy transition on the significance of key energy metrics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 215-223.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:6:p:3425-3433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.