A low-carbon economy in 2050 needs a more ambitious CHP policy today
Date
07 Dec 2011
Sections
Energy
Current national CHP policies are not ambitious enough, says new WWF report. Within the EU’s strategy for substantially decarbonising electricity by 2050, CHP is a valuable tool for increasing energy efficiency currently delivering 35 Mtoe of primary energy savings annually. The economic potential of CHP in the electricity supply is huge.
The EU Climate Policy Tracker 2011 from WWF has been produced in cooperation with Ecofys and updates the original rating done in November 2010. The report assesses the low-carbon policy of the Member States on “specific and measurable requirements on policies that are needed to arrive at a low-carbon economy in 2050”1. As far as CHP is concerned, the report finds that “the requirements of the 2004 CHP Directive are not ambitious enough” and calls for an “additional share of CHP of 10% in 2020”.
Referring specifically to the supply of electricity in the context of the draft Energy Efficiency Directive COM (2011) 370, in which all new thermal generation should be high-efficiency CHP, the authors of the report state that “all losses during the distribution of electricity and heat are covered by the proposed legislation”.
As COGEN Europe has highlighted in its Cogeneration 2050 report2, the need for energy savings in electricity generation is huge and combining the production of electricity and heat in CHP works well with the emerging decarbonisation scenarios (2030-2050).
Dr Fiona Riddoch, Managing Director of COGEN Europe, commented on the findings of the WWF/Ecofys report: “This report adds to the existing knowledge and helps in building the consensus about the role that CHP will play in the 2050 energy picture but this document also reinforces the need for well designed and strong enough CHP provisions in the forthcoming Directive”.
1 WWF and Ecofys (November 2011): Summary Report, EU Climate Tracker 2011 http://www.climatepolicytracker.eu/
2 COGEN Europe (June 2011): http://www.cogeneurope.eu/medialibrary/2011/08/16/9a4fbfd5/30062011-COGEN-Europe-report-Cogeneration-2050.pdf