New Energy Externalities Developments for Sustainability (NEEDS)

Entwicklung neuer Energieexternalitäten für Nachhaltigkeit

Investigators
Eberhard Jochem, Reinhard Madlener, Silvia Banfi, Massimo Filippini (Role of CEPE: organisation of a forum in 2006)

Partners

Akademia Gorniczo - Hutnicza, Poland

Ambiente Italia srl, Italy

Association pour la recherche et le développement des méthodes et processus industriels, France

Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Centre de Developpement des Energies Renouvelables, Morocco

Centre de documentation de recherche et d'experimentation sur les pollutions accidentelles des eaux, France

Center for Promotion of Clean and Efficient Energy, Romania

Centre for Renewable Energy Sources, Greece

Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, MedioAmbientales y Tecnologicas, Spain

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

CESI - Centro Elettrotecnico Sperimentale Italiano Giacinto Motta SpA, Italy

Chalmers Tekniska Högskola AB, Sweden

Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto Metodologie per l'Analisi Ambientale, Italy

Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Germany

Econcept AG, Switzerland

Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie, Tunisia

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

E-CO Tech, Norway

Electricité de France

Elsam A/S, Denmark

Energy research Centre of the Netherlands

ESU-services, Switzerland

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Italy

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung E.V., Germany

Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment - Europe, Belgium

HELIO Intenational, France

Icelandic New Energy Ltd, Iceland

IFU - Institut für Umweltinformatik Hamburg GmbH, Germany

Institute of Occupational Medicine, United Kingdom

Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems, Italy

Institut fuer Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg GmbH, Germany

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Italy

Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute, Hungary

Lithuanian Energy Institute, Lithuania

Lund University, Sweden

Meteorologisk Institutt, Norway

Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

National Technical University of Athens, Greece

New and Renewable Energy Authority, Egypt

Observatoire Méditerranéen de l'Energie, France

Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland

Politecnico di Torino – Dipartimento di Energetica, Italy

PROFING, s.r.o., Slovakia

Risoe National Laboratory, Denmark

S.A.R.L. KANLO Consultants, France

St. István University - Institute of Environmental Management, Hungary

Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Center, Estonian Institute for Sustainable Development, Estonia

Tallinn Technical University, Estonia

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain

Universität Hamburg, Germany

Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Université de Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne, France

University of Antwerp, Belgium

University of Bath, United Kingdom

University of National and World Economy, Bulgaria

University of Newcastle upon tyne, United Kingdom

University of Stuttgart, Germany

Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) , Belgium

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Warsaw University, Department of Economic Science, Poland

Time Frame
9/2004 - 8/2008

Funding
European Commission

Abstract
The NEEDS project addresses sustainable energy systems and socio-economic tools and concepts for energy strategies. 66 partners of 26 countries participate in the evaluation of the full costs and benefits (i.e. direct + external) of energy policies and of future energy systems, both at the level of individual countries and for the enlarged EU as a whole. Advancements are envisaged in:

• Life Cycle Assessement (LCA) of energy technologies,

• monetary valuation of externalities from energy systems, and

• integration of LCA and externalities information into policy formulation and scenario building.

Contents:

1 English Summary

2 Project Description

3 Results

4 Publications

5 Presentations

1 English Summary

NEEDS addresses sustainable energy systems and, more specifically, socio-economic tools and concepts for energy strategies. Its ultimate objective is to evaluate the full costs and benefits (i.e. direct + external) of energy policies and of future energy systems, both at the level of individual countries and for the enlarged EU as a whole. Major advancements will be achieved in the three main areas of:

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of energy technologies

• monetary valuation of externalities from energy production, transport, conversion, and use

• integration of LCA and externalities information into policy formulation and scenario building.

66 partners of 26 countries participate in nine research streams over a duration of four years. The streams address LCA of new energy technologies, development and application of methods to estimate externalities in energy systems, internalisation strategies with respect to various stakeholder perspectives, and integration of the methodologies into a new single framework.

Six forum events are held to disseminate and discuss the results. CEPE is responsible for one of these forums, proposed to be held in Zurich.

2 Project Description

NEEDS addresses sustainable energy systems and, more specifically, socio-economic tools and concepts for energy strategies. Its ultimate objective is to evaluate the full costs and benefits (i.e. direct + external) of energy policies and of future energy systems, both at the level of individual countries and for the enlarged EU as a whole. Major advancements will be achieved in the three main areas of:

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of energy technologies

• monetary valuation of externalities from energy production, transport, conversion, and use

• integration of LCA and externalities information into policy formulation and scenario building.

The consortium includes 66 partners (of which some 15% are SMEs), representing 26 Countries (12 EU Member States, 9 NAS, 3 Mediterranean Countries, and 2 Countries from other parts of the World). It presents a balanced mix of Universities, Research Institutions (both public and private), Industry, NGOs. Most leading institutions in the area of energy externalities research are represented. The Consortium is coordinated by ISIS, Institute for System Integration Studies (Rome)

Over the 4-year duration of the project, the resources mobilised amount to ca. 1,118 person.months, corresponding to a total value of ca. 11.7 MEuro. The financial contribution requested to the European Commission is ca. 7.6 MEuro.

Project objectives

The project aimes to provide innovation in a number of research fields, including:

• the analysis of new energy technologies options (e.g. fuel cells and other hydrogen-based technologies, advanced fossil fuels, advanced nuclear, etc.), and, in general, of renewable energy technologies for which the current LCA knowledge is insufficient (e.g. offshore wind, photovoltaics, bioelectricity, etc.)

• the development of new and improved tools for the monetary valuation of externalities of energy, targeting major innovation at several stages of the Impact Pathway Approach (IPA), in terms of:
  (i) methods (e.g. valuation of mortality and morbidity, estimation of uncertainties, accounting for the precautionary principle, dynamic valuation of externalities, etc.), of
  (ii) impacts so far insufficiently addressed (e.g. loss of biodiversity, water and soil pathways, indoor combustion sources, oil spills, etc.), and of
  (iii) the availability and reliability of quantitative evidence (improved Exposure/Response functions, extension of the geographical coverage of available externality data, etc.)

• the development of a consistent and robust analytical platform allowing to integrate the full range of information and data on LCA and external costs into a Pan-European modelling framework, and to build scenarios of future energy equilibria that must also reflect the foreseeable evolution of energy supply and technology uptake.

Project organisation

The project is built as a series of “research streams ”.

A dedicated integration stream is designed to target the integration of three well established quantitative methodologies into a new single framework. The three basic analytical frameworks are:

• ExternE, which calculates the external costs associated to the supply of electricity and heat based on the most relevant – both current and future - technological options;

• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which calculates “cradle to grave” energy, environment, material and economic resources used by the most relevant power supply options;

• The Integrated MARKAL- EFOM System (TIMES), which generates technology rich partial equilibrium solutions for the long term development of energy - environment systems.

LCA of new energy technologies : This stream will provide data on costs and life cycle inventories (material and energy flows from the entire life cycle, and resulting environmental interventions like emissions, land use, etc.) for emerging energy technologies, with a strong focus on long term technical developments (time horizon 2050). A new methodological framework for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of future technologies is developed by combining prospective methods that are used to reflect technological change (like Technology Foresight and Experience Curves) with the traditional LCA approach. The direct link to scenario modelling will allow a direct feedback between changes in the overall energy system and the life cycle inventories of specific technologies (dynamic LCA).

Development and improvement of a methodology to estimate external costs of energy : The aim of the stream to further develop, improve, and extend the methodology for calculating energy externalities, and in particular:

• to analyse new impact pathways (e.g. soil, water, etc.);

• to analyse new impacts (e.g. loss of biodiversity, hemispheric impacts, impacts from indoor sources, etc.);

• to improve current methods, tools, and datasets (e.g. Exposure/Response functions, exposure patterns, valuation of mortality and morbidity, transport of atmospheric pollutants, etc.);

• to reduce current uncertainties and close existing knowledge gaps.

Externalities associated to the extraction and transport of energy : The objective of this stream is to assess the externalities associated with the initial stages of fuel cycles that provide energy for final use. This includes extraction of oil and gas, as well as transport of oil (including oil spills), gas, electricity, and other energy vectors such as hydrogen.

Extension of the geographical coverage : This stream mainly aims at bringing additional countries up to par with those (mainly EU) for which the current state of knowledge on energy externalities is more advanced, primarily as the result of the ExternE work.
The Countries targeted here are a group of NAC (Newly Associated Countries, and other Central and Eastern European Countries) and of MPC (Mediterranean Partner Countries)
The main aim is to present scientifically sound and reasonable economic instruments for environmental protection and sustainable development, with significant focus on the environmental fiscal/tax reform in particular that will lead to more efficient and sustainable economies.

Modelling internalisation strategies, including scenarios building : This stream aims at generating via The Integrated MARKAL- EFOM System (TIMES) partial equilibrium technology rich economic models of each MS/NAC and of the EU as a whole including, in their long term development, the most important emissions, materials, and damage functions used by LCA and ExternE. Using the key base data received from the other streams, for each energy security, environment protection, and economic development target, this stream calculates equilibrium quantities and prices and provides them to the other streams iteratively, till compatible values are reached.

Energy technology roadmap and stakeholders perspective : The general objectives of this stream are:

• To identify, discuss, and analyse the terms and conditions (including barriers and enablers) for an effective formulation and implementation of long term strategies based on the internalisation of external costs;

• To broaden the basis for decision support beyond the assessment of external costs by examining the robustness of results under various stakeholder perspectives. From the technical point of view the stream should also contribute to the integration of results generated by other analytical tasks within the project.

Transferability and generalisation : The overall objective of this stream is to develop a simple way of calculating, transferring, and present the uncertainty of default values for average/aggregate external costs, that can be used for energy modelling, assessing different technologies, and energy systems, LCA (especially for renewable energy characterised by direct aesthetic and ecosystem/biodiversity impacts), cost-benefit analyses, green accounting, and other policy advice. Full energy chains need to be considered in line with the scope of external cost assessment.

Dissemination and communication : The main objective of the dissemination/communication stream is to discuss the results in a wider context of energy policy definition and evaluation. For this purpose, a series of six forum events are set up in different countries and regions, which shall highlight, how externalities could deepen the discussion of energy policy issues by interacting with a wider audience beyond the expert level. While all six forum events will focus on particular themes drawing on some of the project results from the different streams in the context of the theme chosen, the last event, a larger conference, will also have the purpose to give a forum to the project outcomes in a more comprehensive way.

CEPE is responsible, in co-operation with CNRS/CIRED for the forum event “Comprehensive Integration of Externalities of Innovative Energy Technologies in the Policy Making”, proposed to be held in Zurich. The objective of this forum is to study the relevance of and interplay between all the external effects in the substitution of innovative for conventional energy conversion technologies, and the implications for energy policy design and strategies. It looks primarily at environmental costs and ancillary impacts of various energy technologies along their full live cycle. It copes with the design of policies for orienting innovation diffusion. It focuses in fine on the comparison of environmental and ancillary effects between decentralized and centralized energy systems. Differences between the situation and the methodologies applied in Western and in Central & Eastern European countries will be explicitly addressed.

 

3 Results

4 Publications

5 Presentations