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RES Scenario in the European Union

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Abstract

The evolution of energy consumption in Europe is going through a profound change in recent years: the incidence of traditional fuels is diminishing gradually in the face of an increase in renewable energy sources (RES). In 2013, the consumption of electricity from RES amounts to 14 % of the total with respect to 6 % in 1997.This chapter provides a quantitative analysis of RES in the EU and the prospect of development of RES under different scenarios. The analysis begins with a description of the technical characteristics of RES and the quantity produced by each source at world level. In Sect. 2.2, the distribution of the three major RES that are wind, solar, and biomass throughout the EU context is analyzed. Section 2.3 provides an analysis of the development of RES in the coming years by different scenarios, both according to the 2014 edition of future scenarios of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the WEO-2014 and the current EU Climate and Energy Package. Conclusions are drawn in Sect. 2.4.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The offshore wind is the wind made in the sea. Thanks to the favorable conditions of wind at sea, offshore wind (with the same installed power) produces on average 30 % more energy than usual onshore.

  2. 2.

    The kilowatt peak is used to measure the maximum power delivered by a photovoltaic generator.

  3. 3.

    UNIDO is the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization, and environmental sustainability.

  4. 4.

    China imposes two kinds of duties: the antidumping and antisubsidy for imports of polysilicon for photovoltaic panels from the USA and South Korea. As part of the Chinese government, the decision should strongly discourage the use of external materials, strengthening domestic production.

  5. 5.

    Heat production generally comes from cogeneration plants (plants that produce both heat and electricity).

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Correspondence to Simona Bigerna .

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Bigerna, S., Bollino, C., Micheli, S. (2015). RES Scenario in the European Union. In: The Sustainability of Renewable Energy in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12343-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12343-1_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12342-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12343-1

  • eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)

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