Indicator-based assessment of sustainable energy performance in the European Union

Energy convergence, the decoupling of economic growth and energy use, and sustainable energy transition are all desirable objectives in the European Union. However, there are many contradictions and conflicts in the energy and climate policy that slow down the energy transition. In this paper, we focus on these barriers. A fuel-specific indicator is developed (share of household energy expenditure - SHEE) and used in the calculations. The main research objective is to measure the changes in the household energy mix in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and infer the degree of the energy transition in the household sector. For this purpose, Moore index and delinking factor are applied. The results shed light on the slowness of the just energy transition and confirm the presence of the dual fuel trap. The households in CEE have been stuck in the traditional biomass trap and beyond it, the natural gas consumption also contributes to higher exposure and vulnerability of households. We conclude that territorial differences and spatial characteristics of household energy use need more attention to achieve the energy and climate policy agenda of the European Union.

Section: Delinking Of Household Expenditure On Solid and Natural Gas ...mentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

"Landscape" of energy burden: role of solid fuels in Central and Eastern European residential heating

Szép

Pálvölgyi

Kármán-Tamus

2023

“…Natural gas provides a better local environment but makes residents susceptible to market changes -while the biomass alternative provides poorer local air quality but without the strong market exposure. Szép has previously reported analyses on residential savings in Hungary [20] and more broadly on the European Union [21] in this journal. Biomass usage is a recurring theme in 100% renewable energy transition studies (see e.g.…”

Section: Poul Alberg øStergaard* Rasmus Magni Johannsenmentioning

confidence: 98%

Sustainable Energy Planning and Management Vol 37

Østergaard

Johannsen

2023

This 37th volume of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management present novel analyses on the Nigerian electricity sector with focus on stakeholders in centralised and decentralised electricity supply. Analyses of Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany shows the prospects of 100 % renewable energy systems here. Industry is an important target in the energy transition, so a model is developed to analyse energy savings potentials. Within the heating sector, much of the individual dwellings in Central and Eastern Europe are impacted by a fuel trap, trapping them between two essentially undesirable options – biomass and natural gas. Also, within the residential sector, a new analysis probes in the feasibility of installing photo voltaics in India, and lastly, an interesting article investigates the local economic and employment effects of increased biofuel production.

“…Szép [30] takes a starting point in COVID 19, the energy crisis and decarbonisation effort and developed a set of indicators to assess the performance of nations. Applying it to the European Union member states, they rate Denmark, Sweden, Austria and France as robustwhereas at the other end of their scale, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Lithuania are rated as weak.…”

Section: Ordinary Articlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environmental Systems and Smart Energy Systems

Østergaard

Johannsen

Duić

et al. 2022

This 34th volume of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management includes papers from the 2021 conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environmental Systems (SDEWES) held October 10-15, 2021, in Dubrovnik, Croatia as well as the 7th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems held September 21-22 in Copenhagen, Denmark and two normal papers. A focus area of this issue is district heating and district cooling systems, with articles addressing resources for district heating and cooling systems, impacts of having individual district heating metres for consumers and approaches to analysing district heating systems. Another focus area is stakeholder involvement where two groups of researchers focus on stakeholders from an energy island perspective as well as from a positive energy district perspective. Both groups note the importance of factoring in stakeholders when devising transition plans. Plans for increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources for the Estonian, Latvia and Lithuanian systems are analysed using the Backbone model, finding modest increases in system costs. Lastly, an article sets up an indicator system for assessing environmental performance of European Union member states ranking, e.g., Estonian, Latvia and Lithuanian as moderate (Estonia and Latvia) to weak (Lithuania) in terms of sustainable energy performance score, based on 2019 data.