Energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries - an evaluation of the Swedish voluntary agreement PFE

In this paper we evaluate the Swedish Programme for improving energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries (PFE). Since 2005, some 100 energy-intensive companies have entered this five year voluntary agreement (VA) and been exempted from the EU minimum tax on electricity. In return, each company is required to: conduct an energy audit and analysis; identify and invest in profitable electricity saving measures; implement and certify an energy management system; introduce routines for energy efficient procurement and project planning. For most participants the first programme period was completed in 2009 and available data enables this PFE ex-post evaluation. An impact evaluation compiles and analyse data that the companies have reported to the administrating agency, the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA). This assessment of quantifiable results is complemented by a process-oriented approach that combines studies of policy documents, previous evaluations and personal communication with administrators as well as companies. The bottom-up calculation method distinguishes between gross and net impact. While the SEA estimates a gross impact of 1450 GWh/year the net impact consists of an interval between 689 and 1015 GWh of net annual electricity savings. PFE has effectively and to a low cost exceeded the estimated impact of a minimum tax and can thus be judged as successful. A comprehensive evaluation plan could facilitate relevant data gathering in PFE and similar VAs and could, in doing so, improve accuracy and possibly reduce evaluation cost. Such a plan should give weight also to the organisational changes, with potential long-lasting effects, that these programmes are capable of promoting

International Biofuel Trade - A Study of the Swedish Import

Following the development of large-scale use of biomass energy in the EU, international biofuel trade is a plausible scenario and something that is already taking place in Northern Europe. This paper focuses on Swedish biofuel imports, both direct and indirect imports, the latter which derive from the fact that part of the imported pulpwood and timber end up as fuel. The objective is to describe the biomass import flows, the actors involved and analyse the fundamental drivers for the trade flows. The rapid expansion of biomass energy, that has taken place in district heating since the early 1990s in Sweden, has been met partly by imports. The direct biofuel import was estimated to 18 PJ for 2000, which corresponded to 26% of the biofuel supply in district heating. The total indirect biofuel import was estimated to 9 PJ of which 5.5 PJ is consumed in the district heating sector. Sawmill wood chips, decay-damaged stemwood and pellets are imported from Estonia and Latvia, whereas used wood and solid recovered fuels are imported from Germany and the Netherlands. Tall oil and pellets are imported from North America. Key factors related to the Swedish biofuel import are analysed, both from the view of Swedish demand and from the view of supply in the Baltic countries as well as supply from Germany or the Netherlands. National differences in energy policy are perhaps the most important driving force behind the seemingly strange trade flows. Structures in the different national energy systems are also discussed as well as the transformation process that has taken place in the forest sector in the Baltic countries

National Report on the Energy Efficiency Service Business in Sweden

The ChangeBest project is supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Commission. The purpose of the project is to promote the development of an energy efficiency service (EES) market. The project provides good practice examples of changes in energy service business, strategies, and supportive policies and measures in the course of the implementation of Directive 2006/32/EC on Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services. This report presents the sitauation of the Swedish energy efficiency service market

Basic materials in the low carbon society transition

For the production of basic materials a deep decarbonization fundamentally requires the development of new process technologies. However, the climate policies currently adopted in G8 countries mainly reward incremental improvements and preserve industrial structures rather than induce innovation and preparations for a low-carbon transition. The current policy approach is motivated by fear of carbon leakage and loss of competitiveness but will not be very effective in the longer term as carbon costs increase. There are several reasons why maintaining production capacity of basic materials in developed economies is a necessary strategy. These include technology development, keeping integrated value chains intact, protecting employment, and taking a responsibility from a consumption perspective. We argue that G8 countries should take the initiative to get a global policy response that shifts the current focus beyond short-term problems to a long-term innovation focus for developing zero-carbon process technologies

Process and impact evaluation of PFE – a Swedish tax rebate program for industrial energy efficiency

Before the minimum tax directive (2003/96/EC) took effect in 2004, Swedish industries had enjoyed untaxed electricity for over a decade. While the introduction of the tax increased costs for many companies, energy intensive industries were eligible for exemption if they entered an agreement on energy efficiency. Sweden quickly implemented the directive and simultaneously launched the Programme for improving energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries (PFE). Since then, over 100 companies have entered the five-year voluntary agreement which requires participants to do energy audits, implement energy management systems and make profitable investments. PFE has been hailed as a major success. Participants cite it in bringing organisation and structure into their energy management activities. Companies and industry associations now advocate for policies of this kind to receive precedence when targeting increased energy efficiency. According to ex-ante estimates PFE has resulted in gross annual electricity savings of at least 1 TWh, equivalent to 3 percent of the total consumption of participating companies. This paper presents an intermediate program evaluation focusing both on the PFE process and impact; it evaluates under what conditions the program meets stated objectives. It is evident that gross and net impact will deviate significantly from the officially reported results. Considering EU energy saving targets, the development of policy for energy efficiency in industry as well as monitoring and evaluation to assess program impacts is becoming increasingly important. This paper contributes to this process through an in-depth understanding of PFE, and more broadly to voluntary agreements of similar kind

Assessment of the potential biomass supply in Europe using a resource-focused approach

This paper analyses the potential biomass supply in the 15 EU countries, 8 new member states and 2 candidate countries (ACC10), plus Belarus and the Ukraine. For this purpose five scenarios were designed to describe the short-, moderate- and long-term potential of biomass-for-energy. Our assessments show that under certain restrictions on land availability, the potential supply of biomass energy amounts to up to 12.8 EJy-1 in the EU15 and 6.1 EJy-1 in the ACC10. For comparison, the overall energy supply in the EU15 totalled 62.6 EJy-1 in 2001. Consequently, there are no important resource limitations in meeting the biomass target for 2010, which was set by the European Commission (5.6 EJy-1 for the EU15 according to the 1997 White Paper on Renewable Energy Sources (RES)). However, given the slow implementation of the RES policy it is very unlikely that the biomass target will be met within 2010

The biogas value chains in the Swedish region of Skåne

Biogas systems are complex in the sense that they cut across several sectors, mainly agriculture, waste management and energy. Cooperation between actors in these sectors must work for biogas projects to be realised and successful. The aim of this report is to describe the biogas systems in Skåne from a value chain perspective, including important development pathways. The different segments in the value chain are mapped with regard to actors, actors in supporting activities, technologies and institutions (mainly regulations). Skåne is a fairly small part of Sweden in terms of land area but it is the most important agricultural and food producing region in Sweden and comparatively densely populated. These characteristics explain why Skåne is an important (if not the most important) biogas region in Sweden. The earliest applications of biogas were for the purpose of reducing the volume of sewage from waste water treatment plants. The biogas produced was used mainly for plant process needs and part of it was often flared. Much of the biogas today, from a variety of types of biogas plants, is upgraded and used for transport. The development towards transport applications can be traced back to the desire to reduce oil dependence and urban air pollution from diesel buses. Initially buses were converted to compressed natural gas, but with regional ambitions for fossil free public transport attention in recent years has turned to compressed biogas. Biogas value chains have developed in response to sustainability concerns in energy and transport, sewage sludge and waste handling, and in agriculture. The development has generated new business opportunities, especially in the field of upgrading. The production of biogas, for transport fuel, waste handling and fertiliser, is expected to continue to grow in Skåne

Decarbonising industry in Sweden

This report analyses the technical opportunities for a complete decarbonisation of the basic material industry in Sweden by 2050. From this assessment, the report discusses policy implications for the industry sector given the overall framework set by the ongoing international climate negotiations. Relying on current production systems and applying “end-of-pipe” solutions will be insufficient to reduce emissions below the estimates produced by most climate economic modeling. Decarbonising the industrial sectors while maintaining production volumes requires a major effort to develop, introduce and invest in novel process designs that currently are not available on the market. For achieving this, our analysis points to the need for complementing the current main climate policy approach of pricing the emissions via the EU ETS with a stronger policy for technical change. The support needs to include funding for RD&D but also for market development support in a broad sense. So far, this approach has worked well in the renewable energy sector through the use of various support schemes. The report outlines a technology strategy for industry that identifies a set of broad technological platforms and infrastructure needs such as electrowinning, black liquor gasification, biomass based bulk chemicals, magnesium based cement, application of industrial CCS e.t.c., that all are in need of targeted support. A road map for creating a common vision between government, industry and civil society is a crucial first step. The overall purpose of a roadmap may be to establish priorities on RD&D, coordinate various actors, create networks and institutions for knowledge sharing, and map possible future technology and policy pathways

Assessing energy security: An overview of commonly used methodologies

This paper provides an overview of methodologies used for quantitative evaluations of security of supply. The studied material is mainly based on peer-reviewed articles and the methodologies are classified according to which stage in the supply chain their main focus is directed to, as well as their scientific background. Our overview shows that a broad variety of approaches is used, but that there are still some important gaps, especially if the aim is to study energy security in a future-oriented way. First, there is a need to better understand how sources of insecurity can develop over time and how they are affected by the development of the energy system. Second, the current tendency to study the security of supply for each energy carrier separately needs to be complemented by comparisons of different energy carrier's supply chains. Finally, the mainly static perspective on system structure should be complemented with perspectives that to a greater extent take the systems' adaptive capacity and transformability into account, as factors with a potential to reduce the systems vulnerabilities. Furthermore, it may be beneficial to use methodological combinations, conduct more thorough sensitivity analysis and alter the mind-set from securing energy flows to securing energy services