StoryMaps
Economic activities and energy use
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– Complementarity in renewable energy supply –
– Solar energy –
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Introduction
EnerMaps is a Horizon 2020 (H2020) Coordination and Support Action (CSA) project that aims at improving data management practices in energy research and management. Currently, energy data is often difficult to find, mixed in different repositories, and fragmented, which can slow progresses, increase costs, and create an overall lack of efficiency in the field of energy research. EnerMaps will act as a quality-checked database of crucial energy data that will communicate and disseminate data effectively and efficiently using practices to make the data findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable (FAIR).
The objective of this storymap is to increase the accessibility to the EnerMaps tools and improve the discoverability of selected datasets. StoryMaps are an efficient way to present spatial data for all audience and we hope that specialists and non specialists will enjoy the reading. Feedback is more than welcome using the form below and please share!
Historically, economic growth has been achieved thanks to an abundant and cheap supply of energy. That was until the 1970s when energy prices called for energy efficiency measures across economic activities. Energy efficiency partly explained a decoupling between economic growth and energy use, but how the trends have fared since then? Three and free maps from the EnerMaps Data Management Tool – a new interface supporting FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reproducible) data – tell us more about the recent situation in Europe. A simple analogy shows how fossil fuels contributed to economic expansion. One barrel of oil contains approximately 1.7 million Wh of energy which must be processed and converted into useful work, such as moving a car. Two barrels of oil would be equivalent to the electricity consumption of the average European household over a year.
This can easily be found using the EnerMaps Gateway, a search engine for energy related publications and data. A person in good physical health produces about 100 W per hour, or the electricity of a bright old fashioned incandescent light bulb.
Of course, that’s when the person works, intermittently and for part of her life. Fossil fuels have therefore brought a vast workforce into the economy at a very cheap price. So much so that producing the equivalent energy in one barrel of oil would take most of us about 10 years of work.
1990
This raises the question can economic activities be decoupled from energy use and in particular fossil fuels? Moreover, can we maintain the standard of living enabled by current economic activities at a lower energy consumption level?
1990
This raises the question can economic activities be decoupled from energy use and in particular fossil fuels? Moreover, can we maintain the standard of living enabled by current economic activities at a lower energy consumption level?
1995
Decoupling economic growth from energy use
The idea of decoupling economic activity from energy consumption is not new. Indeed, this is the strategy most countries have pursued over the past decades by reducing energy intensity.
1995
Decoupling economic growth from energy use
The idea of decoupling economic activity from energy consumption is not new. Indeed, this is the strategy most countries have pursued over the past decades by reducing energy intensity.
2000
This is the energy input required to produce one unit of economic output, measured in energy unit (kWh) per monetary unit (EUR).
2000
This is the energy input required to produce one unit of economic output, measured in energy unit (kWh) per monetary unit (EUR).
2005
The EnerMaps visualization tool provides access to the energy efficiency indicator in energy unit per constant monetary unit, and its evolution over time.
2005
The EnerMaps visualization tool provides access to the energy efficiency indicator in energy unit per constant monetary unit, and its evolution over time.
2010
Mechanically, energy intensity can decrease by decreasing energy use and/or by increasing economic output. At the global level and since the 1970s, economic growth has outpaced that of energy use.
2010
Mechanically, energy intensity can decrease by decreasing energy use and/or by increasing economic output. At the global level and since the 1970s, economic growth has outpaced that of energy use.
2014
This is a typical instance of relative decoupling, when the growth rate of economic output is greater than that of energy use, and energy intensity decreases.
2014
This is a typical instance of relative decoupling, when the growth rate of economic output is greater than that of energy use, and energy intensity decreases.
At the national level, multiple mechanisms lead to higher output per unit of energy input, such as energy efficiency improvements or high shares of value-added activities. European countries have benefitted from both energy efficiency and a growing share of services in their economies, especially since the 1990s when energy intensive activities were delocalized east and west. What is needed however, is absolute decoupling, in other words, a decrease in energy input, including the energy embodied in imports. However, the dependence on fossil fuels has remained high even with less industry and more services. As shown here, we still depend on oil products for more than 80% of our activities.
More of everything was added to the lot over the same period and most regions in Europe have experienced economic growth.
Decoupling in relative terms is certainly not enough at the national level. But how does it fare at the household level?
Absolute and relative reductions
Decoupling in relative terms is certainly not enough at the national level. But how does it fare at the household level? The EnerMaps visualization tool can take you directly to the complete information source on the gateway and the data, in this case on the portal of the statistical office of the European Union. As shown here, where data exist since 2010, total household electricity consumption is stable or decreasing over the past decade, despite a growing number of households. In addition, the share of electricity in European household energy use has also increased to about 25%, only second to natural gas. This bodes well for the integration of more renewable energy sources (see storymaps 2 and 3). France is an outlier in the EU, since a significant share of residential heat was electrified along with the construction of nuclear power plants. If direct energy use per household is slightly decreasing, passenger transportation is still increasing which explains why dependence on oil products has changed very little over time.
Decoupling is not a panacea, whether achieved through energy efficiency improvements or greater shares of high value-added activities in the economy. Energy remains essential to the economy but some activities dependent on oil, namely transportation, must stabilize and reduce fossil fuels rapidly. Electrification will improve the odds but we must reduce the number of km travelled per capita. Energy efficiency improvements in heating, residential and commercial, are also among the remaining low hanging fruits to be picked equally quickly.