How to change the energy behaviour of consumers in the residential sector?

Many technologies and strategies focusing on energy savings and efficient use of energy in households exist. But still the energy consumption of households increases. This means that more changes in consumer behaviour are needed. But how can we enforce that? This is the core question of the recently started European research project Changing Behaviour, in which the unit Policy Studies of ECN is participating. The project aims at improving the outcomes of demand side management programmes on changing consumer behaviour. To make these programmes more efficient a methodology is developed for and together with policy makers and practitioner organisations who initiate these programmes. This methodology incorporates the different indicators influencing behaviour, for example the local context, financial incentives, habits of consumers, current values, knowledge level, etc. The methodology will be based on extensive literature research and an analysis of best and worst practices of programmes on changing the energy behaviour of consumers in the European residential sector. To further improve the methodology it will be discussed with different practitioners and intermediary organisations during four workshops and tested in six European energy demand response management projects.

South Africa: Highflats Energy Centre improves access to energy

Access to modern energy is an important condition for achieving the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the world's poverty by 2015. In South Africa, in rural and urban areas, many poor people are still dependent on inferior fuels for meeting their basic energy needs.  The EC-funded APPLES project (Alleviation of Poverty through the Provision of Local Energy Services), managed by Nico van der Linden at ECN Policy Studies and implemented in collaboration with the University of Cape Town and Parallax from South Africa, and Denmark University of Technology, addresses these problems by researching the local energy needs, identifying best energy practices and building capacity. The activities are targeted at Imizamo Yethu (urban location near Cape Town) and Highflats (rural location in the province of Kwazulu Natal). One of the major achievements of the APPLES project is the establishment of an Energy Centre in Highflats which comprises a supply and distribution hub, an information centre and a sales point. People in the region can turn to the energy centre for information and they can also buy energy-related goods at very low prices that have been negotiated with the suppliers. The Highflats Energy Centre is scheduled to open officially in July 2008 and will operate independently from then onwards.  

Air pollution problems are not solved by energy and climate policies

We have explored the effects of the Dutch Climate Programme ‘Clean and Efficient - Opportunities for Tomorrow’ on the emissions of air pollutants. Greenhouse gas reduction is not an adequate cure for air pollution. On the national level, the relative effects on air pollutant emissions are invariably much smaller than those on domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Several causes explain why air pollution reduction lags behind. First, not all air pollutants are linked to fossil fuel use and their reductions require other measures. Second, combustion of biomass to replace fossil fuels produces about the same air pollutant emissions while reducing CO₂. Thirdly, emissions of air pollutants vary strongly with energy carriers and processes is less clean than larger power plants. Specifically for the Netherlands, also electricity market mechanisms are crucial. Strong climate policies and high CO₂ prices are likely to result in lower electricity demand, more renewable electricity generation and more cogeneration. However, the Dutch power sector is planning to build several new efficient fossil fuel based power plants. This is likely to improve its international competitiveness, so climate policies will not decrease output capacity but increase electricity exports. As a result, emission reductions of both CO₂ and air pollutants may materialize outside the Netherlands, rather than within its borders. This poses a risk for the attainment of Dutch targets on air pollutants. 

Future electricity prices and exchanges between Northwest European electricity markets

The electricity markets in Northwest Europe will undergo structural changes in the near future. Besides expected demand growth and increasing fuel and CO₂ prices, new investments in power generation capacity (including wind energy) are foreseen as well as decommissioning of old power plants. Furthermore, new interconnectors will become available between the Netherlands and neighbouring countries and the capacity of existing interconnectors may increase or more efficiently used. These changes will have a major impact on the price differences and exchanges between Northwest European wholesale electricity markets. To analyse these impacts ECN conducted a study with the electricity market simulation model COMPETES. The analyses of developments in the Northwest European markets show that it is very likely that electricity wholesale prices in 2020 of Dutch and neighboring power markets will converge and the Netherlands will become in most cases a net exporting country. This result is proved to be robust under different scenarios and also if developments in countries differ. The result also confirms findings of the previous energy and climate policy related studies, which show that the development of the Netherlands to become a net exporter of electricity is a rather robust result under the assumptions made for Clean and Efficient Programme.

Plenty space for biofuels in Europe - Second generation should make the difference

Last March, REFUEL presented its final results. This project, preparing a road map for biofuels, focused on land and feedstock availability and costs, full-chain biofuels costs, impacts, strategy and policy considerations, and was commissioned by the EU’s Intelligent Energy Europe programme. Key outcomes: 

• The EU biofuels target for 2020 can be met with conventional feedstocks and current technology without major agricultural land use changes and environmental consequences. The EU-12 new Member States and Ukraine would provide the bulk of the feedstock.
• Yet, these biofuels repond only moderately to the drivers behind biofuels, i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security. Only advanced, second-generation biofuels are expected to provide a substantial contribution to these drivers.
• The introduction of second-generation biofuels requires supporting measures on several levels: from introduction of feedstock supply chains to reducing the investment risk in conversion technology. The precursor effect of current policies (mainly focusing on first-generation biofuels) is considered somewhat overrated; more synergies may be found in other bioenergy options using lignocellulosic feedstocks, such as biomass co-firing.