World Energy Outlook 2010

World Energy Outlook 2010

The world appears to be emerging from the worst economic crisis in decades. Many countries have made pledges under the Copenhagen Accord to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Commitments have also been made by the G-20 and APEC leaders to phase out inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies. Are we, at last, on the path to a secure, reliable and environmentally sustainable energy system?

What more must be done and spent to achieve the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to two degrees Celsius? What would be the impact of these actions on oil markets?

How will emerging economies increasingly shape the global energy landscape? Where will their policy decisions lead us? And will China sustain and intensify the four-fold improvement in energy intensity it has achieved in the last thirty years?

How quickly will the contribution of renewables to meeting the world's energy needs grow? How much will it cost? And to what extent does growth in deployment and use of renewable energy hinge on government support?

All these questions and many others are answered in the World Energy Outlook 2010 (WEO-2010).

Article uploaded in Pluridoc

Analysing the implementation of three vehicle renewal and one urban mobility measures defined in the Portuguese Energy Efficiency Action Plan (PNAEE) is available in Pluridoc.

Abstract:
The Portuguese Action Plan on Energy Efficiency (PNAEE) aims a 10% reduction in final energy consumption in 2015, compared with the average of final energy consumption from 2001 to 2005, through the implementation of energy efficiency policies in transportation, residential, services, industry and government. The transportation sector is responsible for more than a third of final energy consumption and will have the highest predicted energy savings (41%). This paper analyses the implementation of measures included in the vehicle renewal and urban mobility programs. The vehicle renewal program aims to increase energy efficiency of cars through incentives to replace them by more efficient ones and equipment changes. It focuses on reducing the percentage of passenger and commercial vehicles with more than 10 years to 30% and the greenhouse gas emissions from new cars to 110 g CO2/km, so low emissions vehicles represent 10% of the total number of cars circulating in 2015. Urban mobility program aims to encourage the use of public instead of individual transport in urban areas through the creation of mobility plans, the increase in efficiency of public transportation and modal shifting in cities. It focuses on transferring 5% of passenger km (pkm) in Metropolitan Areas of Lisbon (AML) and Porto (AMP) from individual to public transportation in 2015. Based on estimated car ownership, end-of-life vehicles’ decommissioning and new low-emission vehicles sales, the paper concludes that meeting the targets for vehicle renewal measures is unlikely. Based on the increase from individual transport in pkm in AML and AMP, meeting the target is likely. However, trends in pkm are uncertain in the upcoming years. Even assuming that public transportation will continue losing pkm (from 1991 to 2001, the transportation system in AML and AMP changed from one based on public transport to one based on individual transportation), the percentage loss to cars remains difficult to estimate.

Keywords: efficiency plan, transportation, policies, mobility, vehicle renewal

Comments are greatly appreciated!

Interview with Tulsi Tanti (in portuguese)

An interesting interview with Tulsi Tanti, the CEO of Suzlon (Indian wind turbines manufacturer) can be found here (in Portuguese).

Suzlon is the third largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the World.

Tanti argues that tariffs should be dynamic and that who should pay renewable energies costs' is everyone that consumes above the average and in the peek hours.

PassivHaus construction

An interesting article from The Ecologist about PassivHaus Construction

How does it work?
Imagine wrapping a whole house in a tea cosy. Instead of just insulating the walls and lofts, the insulating layer is continuous. The emphasis is on super-insulation and stringent levels of airtightness to create a ‘tea-cosy effect’ (or minimal thermal bridging). The houses are also designed to optimise heat from the sun (passive solar gain). The only techie bit is the mechanical ventilation and heat-recovery system (MVHR), which provides the house with fresh air and helps to warm it by recovering heat from the extracted air and transferring it to the incoming air. In addition, most of the of heat generated inside – body heat from people and animals, heat from lighting and cooking, as well as solar gain – is retained within the building. As a result you hardly need any traditional heating or air conditioning systems.

Europe facing €1trn bill to upgrade electricity grids

A draft version of the EC energy strategy estimates that the EU will have to spend about €1trn by 2020 to update, expand and strengthen its ageing electricity grids.

The European Union's five main energy priorities for the next ten years must be energy efficiency, an integrated market, technological leadership, energy security and strong international partnerships.

Read the article

Policy Pathways: Showing the way to energy efficiency implementation now

Policy Pathways: Showing the way to energy efficiency implementation now is a publication by the IEA aimed at helping governments implement energy efficiency policies.

This first issue is about performance standards of appliances.

Governments are missing a great opportunity to save energy. Even the countries that are most proactive on energy efficiency have implemented less than 60% of the IEA energy efficiency recommendations,” said IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka at the launch in Paris.

Read the article

International Low-Carbon Energy Technology Platform

IEA created the Low-Carbon Energy Technology Platform.

Its aim is to accelerate and scale-up action for the development and deployment of clean energy technologies by: catalysing partnerships and activities at regional and national levels; sharing best-practice technology policy; and reviewing progress on low-carbon technology deployment to help identify gaps in policy and international collaboration.