Higher Energy Security Demands Recycling, Flexibility and… Energy Efficiency
Date: August 13th 2020
Author: Alenka Lena Klopčič
Category: En.vision
Topic:
Renewables
, Energy policy
, New technologies
, Economy
Energy is one of the pillars of the economy, therefore we need to look for new systems, including the possibilities of recycling, said Salvatore Pinto, the chairman and founder of Green Energy Storage, in the opening of the latest webinar organised by the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) devoted to energy security. Pinto said that he expects significant innovations in this area in the future. In this regard he mentioned lithium, where – as is the case for other sources – it is necessary to strive for innovations in recycling and, as a result, for the circular economy. The speakers highlighted the importance of the system flexibility required by renewable energy sources, highlighting energy efficiency as the ‘first fuel’.

EU imports energy at a cost of EUR 350 billion

Codazzi continued by stating that, however, the EU set ambitious targets in order to address not only green goals but also to decrease its energy dependency. In Europe the operation of an interconnected power system together with a high share of renewable energy generation has recently shown some first signs of weakness that need to be properly addressed, he noted.
Therefore, the capacity market will play a key role in ensuring power generation adequacy in the coming years, said Codazzi, stressing the importance of cross-border coupling of power markets to optimally exploit interconnections during the real-time operation of power systems with a high share of renewables, as well as higher system flexibility, in terms of adequate market design. Energy storage will play a special role in the latter, stressed Codazzi, referring to the recent case in Italy, whereby the penetration of renewables increased during the lockdown.
Energy efficiency as the ‘first fuel’

Santi also stressed that over the period from 1975 to 2016, savings from intensity reductions (2,334 qBTU) had a 30-fold greater impact than the growth in renewables in the same period (78 qBTU). According to Santi, energy efficiency will provide the strongest contribution to limiting climate change as part of a package of measures, including increasing the supply of renewable energy. Additionally, in a ‘2° Celsius scenario’, 40% of the total CO2 emissions savings must come from energy efficiency.
The webinar is available HERE.
This article is available also in Slovene.