Browse by: "2014"

This volume contains data on the supply and consumption of coal, oil, gas, electricity, heat, renewables and waste presented as comprehensive energy balances expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent. Complete data are available for 2011 and 2012 and supply estimates are available for the most recent year (i.e.2013). Historical tables summarise production, trade and final consumption data as well as key energy and economic indicators. The book also includes definitions of products and flows, explanatory notes on the individual country data and conversion factors from original units to energy units.

More detailed data in original units are published in the 2014 edition of Energy Statistics of OECD Countries, the sister volume of this publication.

This volume contains data on energy supply and consumption in original units for coal, oil, gas, electricity, heat, renewables and waste. Complete data are available for 2011 and 2012 and supply estimates are available for the most recent year (i.e. 2013). Historical tables summarise data on production, trade and  final consumption. The book also includes definitions of products and flows and explanatory notes on the individual country data.

In the 2014 edition of Energy Balances of OECD Countries, the sister volume of this publication, the data are presented as comprehensive energy balances expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent.

This review analyses the energy policy challenges facing Luxembourg and provides recommendations for each sector. It is intended to help guide the country towards a more secure and sustainable energy future and the development of its 2030 energy strategy.

It finds that since 2008, Luxembourg’s energy policy has focused on mitigating CO2 emissions in transport and industry and on supporting renewable energies and energy efficiency towards 2020. Luxembourg’s greenhouse gas emissions have stabilised as energy-intensive industries have scaled back their activities and the government put strong energy efficiency policies in place, notably for buildings.

Since 2009, the country’s research and development (R&D) policies have promoted eco-innovation and clean energy technologies. In 2012, government spending on energy R&D as a ratio of gross domestic product was the highest among IEA members. Luxembourg is creating a national platform for smart meters and electric vehicles, the first of its kind country-wide roll out.

Nonetheless, Luxembourg faces several energy challenges. Oil consumption in transport is rising because of growing road fuel sales, largely the result of tax differences to neighbouring countries. This increases Luxembourg’s emissions and its oil stockholding needs. Because the country imports all of its energy needs, energy security is a priority. Luxembourg has sought to address this through greater regional integration such as merging its gas market with Belgium and increasing its electricity interconnection with France and Belgium. Yet the benefits of regional integration of wholesale energy markets have not yet translated to retail markets. Moreover, as regional electricity trade grows and neighbouring countries introduce ambitious decarbonisation policies and capacity markets, Luxembourg will need to define its priorities for an energy strategy through 2030.

As the supply revolution enters a new phase, oil’s role in the global energy mix is being redefined. More than ever, getting a handle on these developments is key to ensuring that energy security is maintained or enhanced, investment is appropriately targeted and resources are optimally leveraged. That makes the Medium-Term Oil Market Report's insights into the oil market for the next five years essential reading for energy industry and market stakeholders, policy makers and all those interested in energy and the broader economy.

This book examines the non-conventional supply revolution that is transforming the North American oil patch that has been widely recognised as a game changer for the oil markets and looks at how this transformation is playing out against the backdrop of other relevant market developments. It asks how long can the US oil boom can be expected to last, and what will it take for other countries to replicate this success story.

It explores what is holding up OPEC supply growth, what OPEC production capacity will look like by the end of the decade, and how the market will absorb growing condensate and natural gas liquids supplies in the United States and elsewhere. It examines whether the recovery in global oil demand will gain momentum, or if “peak demand” is just around the corner and whether oil is losing its grip on transport fuels.

It also examines whether US progress towards oil independence is a step forward or a step back for crude markets and for Middle East downstream forays. And finally it explores who will be the winners and losers of global refining capacity growth, and how will it affect the way refined products are delivered to consumers.

Russia holds among the world’s largest resources of gas, oil and coal. Its liquids production has reached historical highs, yet major additional upstream investments and technology upgrades will be needed to sustain these levels in the long term. Since the IEA’s last review of Russia’s energy policies in 2002, the power sector has also liberalised considerably. However, the Russian economy remains largely inefficient, with twice as much energy used per GDP compared with IEA member countries. Ambitious energy efficiency policies have been introduced but have not led to significant improvements so far. At the same time, the electricity and district heating infrastructure is ageing and requires rapid investments. Russia’s overall energy sector would benefit considerably from a more competitive, market-oriented environment.

While a number of policies aimed at modernising the energy sector and increasing its efficiency and sustainability are being developed or implemented, further reforms are needed. This review analyses the energy-policy challenges facing Russia and provides critiques and recommendations for further policy improvements.

Energy efficiency is widely recognised as the most cost-effective and readily available means to address numerous energy-related issues, including energy security, the social and economic impacts of high energy prices, and concerns about climate change. At the same time, energy efficiency increases competitiveness and promotes consumer welfare. In this context, it is important to develop and maintain well-founded indicators to better inform policy making and help decision makers formulate policies that are best suited to domestic and/or international objectives.

This publication enables energy analysts and policy makers to identify priority areas for the development of energy efficiency indicators, define which sector(s) offer the greatest potential to further improve energy efficiency, select the data and indicators that best support policy development in these sectors, and develop a strategy to advance policy development through the improved use of indicators to track progress of energy efficiency policies.

Energy efficiency is high on the political agenda as governments seek to reduce wasteful energy consumption, strengthen energy security and cut greenhouse gas emissions. However, the lack of data for developing proper indicators to measure energy efficiency often prevents countries from transforming declarations into actions.

This manual identifies the main sectoral indicators and the data needed to develop these indicators; and to make surveying, metering and modeling practices existing all around the world available to all. It has been developed with a companion document, Energy Efficiency Indicators: Essentials for Policy Making, as a starting point towards enabling policymakers to understand where greater efficiency is needed, to implement appropriate policies and to measure their impact.

Energy Policy Highlights showcases what the 28 IEA member countries identified as key recent developments in their energy policies. Each country contribution covers a range of energy-related topics, with best practices and policy examples from their respective governments, including objectives, characteristics, challenges and successes, and shared lessons. Each contribution underscores the changing nature of both global and domestic energy challenges, as well as the commonality of energy concerns among member countries. For example, many of the policies highlighted identify an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a clear objective. Electricity, enhancing energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix in a cost effective manner are likewise areas of common focus. Overall, the energy concerns reflect key areas of focus for the IEA – energy security, environmental protection and economic development.

On the end-user side, increasing public awareness of domestic energy policies through improved transparency and engagement is an important facet of policy support among IEA member countries. The successful implementation of policies and other initiatives benefitted from efforts to inform the public. The IEA hopes that Energy Policy Highlights will provide a useful point of reference and dialogue for the 2013 IEA Ministerial, and will help advance the Agency’s well-established practice of co-operation and worldwide engagement through the sharing of experiences, best practices and lessons learned, among IEA member countries and partner countries alike.

Electricity shortages can paralyse our modern economies. All governments fear rolling black-outs and their economic consequences, especially in economies increasingly based on digital technologies.

Over the last two decades, the development of markets for power has produced cost reduction, technological innovation, increased cross border trade and assured a steady supply of electricity. Now, IEA countries face the challenge of maintaining security of electricity supply during the transition to low-carbon economies.

Low-carbon policies are pushing electricity markets into novel territories at a time when most of the generation and network capacity will have to be replaced. Most notably, wind and solar generation, now an integral part of electricity markets, can present new operating and investment challenges for generation, networks and the regional integration of electricity markets. In addition, the resilience of power systems facing more frequent natural disasters is also of increasing concern.

IEA ministers mandated the Secretariat to work on the Electricity Security Action Plan (ESAP), expanding to electricity the energy security mission of the IEA. This paper outlines the key conclusions and policy recommendations to "keep the lights on" while reducing CO

2 emissions and increasing the efficiency.

Ensuring energy security and addressing climate change cost-effectively are key global challenges. Tackling these issues will require efforts from stakeholders worldwide. To find solutions, the public and private sectors must work together, sharing burdens and resources, while at the same time multiplying results and outcomes.

Through its broad range of multilateral technology initiatives (Implementing Agreements), the IEA enables member and non-member countries, businesses, industries, international organisations and non-governmental organisations to share research on breakthrough technologies, to fill existing research gaps, to build pilot plants and to carry out deployment or demonstration programmes across the energy sector. In short, their work can comprise any technology-related activity that supports energy security, economic growth, environmental protection and engagement worldwide.

Some 40 Implementing Agreements carry out programmes in the areas of energy efficiency (buildings, electricity, industry, and transport), fossil fuels (clean coal, enhanced oil recovery, carbon capture and storage), fusion power (tokamaks, materials, technologies, safety, alternate concepts) and renewable energy technologies, and cross-cutting topics (technology transfer, research databases, and modeling).

This publication highlights the most significant recent achievements of the IEA Implementing Agreements. The core of the IEA Energy Technology Network, these initiatives are a fundamental building block for facilitating the entry of new and improved energy technologies into the marketplace.

Since the last review in 2008, the Netherlands has attracted investment in oil and gas storage; coal, oil and gas import terminals; and efficient power plants. This additional capacity provides flexibility and energy security both in the Netherlands and across EU markets. However, the outlook for Europe’s second-largest producer of natural gas is challenging amid declining gas production and uncertain prospects for unconventional gas. Developing the remaining natural gas potential, the market integration and ensuring the security of supply and resilience of the energy infrastructure during the transition should be top priorities.

The Netherlands stimulates energy efficiency and innovation in energy-intensive industries along the whole supply chain, notably in the Dutch refining, petrochemical and agriculture sectors, a practice that contributes to industrial competitiveness.

Despite successful decoupling of greenhouse-gas emissions from economic growth between 1990 and 2012, however, the Netherlands remains one of the most fossil-fuel- and CO2-intensive economies among IEA countries. In September 2013, the Netherlands reached an agreement with key stakeholders on priority actions to support sustainable economic growth through 2020. In addition to implementing the agreement, the government must set the scene for a stable policy framework up to 2030, which is also crucial for renewable energies.

The Netherlands has accelerated permit procedures for new energy infrastructure and is driving technology cost reduction with reformed renewable support. The country can benefit from further interconnections with neighbouring countries, as renewables become an integral part of wholesale and balancing electricity markets in the EU.

This review analyses the energy policy challenges currently facing the Netherlands, and provides recommendations for each sector. It gives advice on implementing the Energy Agreement and how to leverage international opportunities from clean energy technologies. It is only available in PDF format.

The International Energy Agency's 2014 review of Austria’s energy policy analyses the energy policy challenges facing Austria and provides sectoral studies and recommendations for further policy improvements. It finds that Austria's energy policy  rests on three pillars – security of supply, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

The country’s decarbonisation drive has strengthened as the economy and renewable energy use have continued to grow, while fossil fuel use has decreased. Notably, Austria has more than tripled the public funding for energy research, development and demonstration since 2007.

Greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, which peaked in 2005, still need to be reduced further, and the transport sector offers prime opportunities for this. In the context of EU negotiations on an energy and climate policy framework to 2030, Austria should develop a strategy that also integrates security of supply and internal market dimensions.

Closer cross-border integration of both electricity and natural gas markets and systems is required to build a single European market. This calls for increased co-ordination and co-operation with neighbouring countries. Austria should also encourage investment in networks, optimise demand response and integrate variable renewable energy supply in a cost-effective and market-based manner.

A well-functioning internal market can help reduce the growing concerns over energy prices and costs, both for industry and for citizens. Austria could address these concerns also by implementing more energy efficiency measures and facilitating greater retail market competition.

Wind power and solar photovoltaics (PV) are crucial to meeting future energy needs while decarbonising the power sector. Deployment of both technologies has expanded rapidly in recent years, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak picture of clean energy progress. However, the inherent variability of wind power and solar PV raises unique and pressing questions. Can power systems remain reliable and cost-effective while supporting high shares of variable renewable energy (VRE)? And if so, how?

Based on a thorough review of the integration challenge, this publication gauges the economic significance of VRE integration impacts, highlights the need for a system-wide approach to integrating high shares of VRE and recommends how to achieve a cost-effective transformation of the power system.

This book summarises the results of the third phase of the Grid Integration of VRE (GIVAR) project, undertaken by the IEA over the past two years. It is rooted in a set of seven case studies, comprising 15 countries on four continents. It deepens the technical analysis of previous IEA work and lays out an analytical framework for understanding the economics of VRE integration impacts. Based on detailed modelling, the impact of high shares of VRE on total system costs is analysed. In addition, the four flexible resources which are available to facilitate VRE integration – generation, grid infrastructure, storage and demand side integration – are assessed in terms of their technical performance and cost-effectiveness.