Green Blog

The European Commission has recently published a communication on EU energy policy that makes interesting reading.  The document discusses where the EU fits in the global energy market, the security of energy supply and related issues such as climate change and energy safety.

The overall objective of the EU’s energy policy is to ensure safe, secure, affordable and sustainable energy supplies.  The global demand for energy is, however, changing rapidly with demand from China and India making a significant impact.  Globally it is estimated that demand will increase by one third between 2008 and 2035, while the EU demand will remain static, and the demand in both China and India is expected to double.  Energy demand in the Middle East is expected to increase by 70% in the same period.

Growth of this magnitude is bound to put pressure on the security of energy supplies to the EU.  At the moment the EU imports about half of all its energy needs from third countries and is the world’s largest energy importer when compared to other regions as the table below shows.  At present trends the EU will import 70% of its entire energy needs by 2030.

Top energy importing countries and regions, 2008 

Source: International Energy Agency

Europe is lucky in so far as it is close to major energy sources for some fuels.  Approximately 85% of natural gas and 50% of crude oil imports into the EU come from nearby Russia, Norway and Algeria.  About 60% of all coal used is produced in the EU and 27% comes from Russia.  The remainder, however, comes from as far away as South Africa, Australia, Colombia and America.  Practically all of the natural uranium used in the EU is imported.

The EU’s heavy reliance on imported energy, combined with the overall growth in global energy demand, is bound to lead to price fluctuations and disruptions to energy supply.  To minimize the risks, the communication discusses the need to invest in energy production and in the infrastructure required to move energy around – both within the EU and between the EU and the sources of supply.  This includes the development of a Southern energy corridor between the EU and the Caspian/Middle East Basin as well as upgrading the Eastern corridor which links the EU to Russia through Belarus and Ukraine.  Developing, and linking to, solar power in North Africa is also discussed.

According to the International Energy Agency, last year has seen the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide and the predicted increase in carbon intensive energy in future years will lead to accelerated climate change.  Some countries are improving energy efficiency but globally there is little change.  The communication states that there is an urgent need for global action on resource efficiency and low carbon energy solutions with demand for renewable energy predicted to triple in the next decade. 

Ireland is well positioned to capitalize on this growing threat to the EU’s energy needs.  We have the potential to satisfy all of our own energy needs from renewable sources and to export renewable energy to the EU.  Our wind potential, combined with pumped storage, can guarantee this form of renewable energy regardless of wind conditions.  We can reduce or eliminate the six billion euro bill that we pay each year for imported fuel and can gain additional revenue from the sale of our energy to other countries.   

The Communication from the EU can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/energy/international/security_of_supply/doc/sec_2011_1022.pdf

The United Nations has designated 5 June as World Environment Day (WED) with a special emphasis on forests.  The theme is ‘Forests: Nature at your service’ to highlight the environmental, economic and social roles played by the world’s forests.  India is the host nation for WED 2011 and there are many events planned to raise awareness of the damage done through deforestation and of the need to manage forests in a sustainable way.

About 30% of the land on earth is covered by forests.  Across the world humans are cutting down forests at an estimated rate of 13 million hectares per year - that’s over 32 million acres of trees disappearing each year.  The impact of this rate of deforestation is not just habitat loss.  Trees act as carbon sinks and absorb the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere.  There is more carbon stored in forests than in the entire atmosphere and when trees are cut down to make way for farmland that stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.  The United Nations stated, in their latest assessment report, that reducing or preventing deforestation would have the largest and most immediate impact on climate change in the short term.

Forests are also the most diverse ecosystems on land, because they hold the vast majority of the world's terrestrial species and rain forests are among the oldest ecosystems on Earth. Only a fraction of known species has been examined for potential medicinal, agricultural or industrial value and many are lost to extinction before they can be investigated.

For more information on WED 2011 have a look at http://www.unep.org/wed/

Here in Ireland the Environmental Protection Agency has organized a competition on Twitter to mark WED 2011.   The public are asked to follow the EPA on Twitter and, using the hashtag #WEDIreland, send a tweet advising on a positive action they can take on World Environment Day to help protect the environment.  The competition is open until noon on Wednesday next 8 June and the prize for the best entry is a hotel break in one of Ireland’s Green Hotels to the value of 250 euro. 

See http://www.epa.ie/news/pr/2011/name,30968,en.html  for more details.

Swedish media recently reported that the Swedish energy group Vattenfall has launched a major pilot project using algae to absorb greenhouse gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant in eastern Germany.

The €2 million trial run, which will continue until October 2011 in the Lausitz mining region, is one of several experimental attempts in the sector using algae to slash carbon dioxide output.

"The microalgae use climate-killing CO2 to create valuable biomass," the chairman of Vattenfall Europe Mining and Generation, Hartmuth Zeiss, said in a
statement. "Moreover, the new technology will bring useful know-how to the Lausitz region and increase its importance as a region for energy production."

Half the funding for the project called green MiSSiON (Microalgae Supported
CO2 Sequestration in Organic Chemicals and New Energy) comes from Vattenfall, the other half from state and European Union subsidies.

The gas emitted at the Senftenberg brown-coal-fired plant is being pumped
through a kind of broth using algae cultivated in 12 plastic tanks. The aim is to find out what kinds of algae work with brown coal dust and then, how economical this kind of CO2 reduction is.

Algae can scrub 10 times as much CO2 as land-based plants and the biomass produced in the process can be used to produce biodiesel, to feed biogas power plants and as a nutritious supplement in fish food.

Initial results of the project will be published in late 2011.

A project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 found that diverting CO2 through an algae broth could reduce emissions by as much as 85 percent.

Vattenfall is the third biggest electricity provider in Germany. Last month, European aerospace giant EADS unveiled what it called the world's first "hybrid" aircraft to run on algae fuel.

Here in Ireland our largest coal fired power station is situated close to the Shannon estuary with a plentiful supply of seawater nearby. Efforts to find a nearby reservoir for carbon capture and storage have failed and so, if the experiment in East Germany proves successful, then it may be possible to replicate the process here at home.