IEA energy efficiency page

IEA has a new page dedicated to energy efficiency.

Portuguese Energy Strategy 2020

The Portuguese Energy Strategy for 2020 was presented yesterday.
The strategy has three key ideas:
1. Promoting renewable energies and endogenous resources to create employment;
2. Reducing external dependency;
3. Sustainability and climate change.

The budget is 31 thousand million euros and 130 to 140 thousand jobs will be created until 2020.

Official government press release (in portuguese)
Interview with the Economy Minister (in portuguese)
Energy and the Environment Associations (in portuguese)

Kyoto2, how to manage the global greenhouse, by Oliver Tickell

I'm reading the book Kyoto 2, by Oliver Tickell.
The Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012 and the author proposes a new mechanism for the post-Kyoto period (post 2012). This has yet to be defined. The Copenhagen Summit did not produce an agreement, just a letter of intentions. Everyone is expecting for the Mexico Summit.
Energy is a major contributor to climate change. What can be the role of energy efficiency in tackling climate change?

As efficiency improves, people or companies can use the same amount of energy to produce more services. This means that the cost of energy for any one service has fallen. This has two effects. The first is that money you would otherwise have spent on energy is released to do something else. The second is that as processes which use a lot of energy become more efficient, they look more financially attractive than they were before. So when you are deciding what to spend your extra money on, you will invest in more energy-intensive processes than you would otherwise have done. The extraordinary result is that, in a free market, energy efficiency could increase energy use.

This is the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate: increased energy efficiency paradoxically tends to lead to increased energy consumption.
The author also refers to a recent analysis by Nick Hanleya of raising energy efficiency in Scotland:

Making more with less intuitively seems to be good for the environment, and this is the presumption of the current UK policy. However, in a system-wide context, improvements in energy efficiency lower the cost of energy in efficiency units and may even stimulate the consumption and production of energy measured in physical units, and increase pollution. Simulations of a computable general equilibrium model of Scotland suggest that an across the board stimulus to energy efficiency there would actually stimulate energy production and consumption and lead to a deterioration in environmental indicators. The implication is that policies directed at stimulating energy efficiency are not, in themselves, sufficient to secure environment improvements: this may require the use of complementary energy policies designed to moderate incentives to increased energy consumption.

Energy TV (in portuguese)

Energy TV is an initiative from IDMEC, a research unit from IST that wants to promote sustainable energy use in Portugal.
The site is available in portuguese only.

EurObserv'ER - The Renewable Energy observatory

"Since 1998, The EurObserv'ER barometer measures the progress made by renewable energies in each sector and in each member State of the European Union in an as up-to-date way as possible (with figures less than 12 months old). EurObserv'ER produces a series of figure-backed indicators covering energetic, technological and economic dimensions."

Latest publication is the Wind Power Barometer.

The economics of transition in the power sector

IEA released a new report on the economics of transition in the power sector.
Electricity production has various environmental impacts, one of which greenhouse gas emissions. More efficient plants, carbon capture and storage and more restrictive control of emissions are some of the measures being used to change the situation. But these measures have risks associated.
The report identifies the importance of these risk factors in the economics of transition by illustrating the case of investment in the power sector. To a great extent, the transition to a lowcarbon power sector means dealing with coal plants, which is the largest contributor for greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 73% of global power sector CO2 emissions.

EU expects to meet 20% renewables target by 2020

According to the European Wind Energy Association, EU will meet or slightly exceed its 2020 target of 20% renewable energy production in the 27 Member States.
Portugal is on track to meet the target, which is 31% renewable energy share in 2020. In 2005, the share of renewable energy was 20.5%. Hydro power and wind will probably be the main renewable players.

For more information go to:
Energy Efficiency News
EWEA Summary of Forecast Documents Submitted by Member States