IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v50y2012icp659-668.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Renewables vs. energy efficiency: The cost of carbon emissions reduction in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • López-Peña, Álvaro
  • Pérez-Arriaga, Ignacio
  • Linares, Pedro

Abstract

While support instruments have succeeded to largely deploy renewables during the 1996–2008 period, little attention has been paid to energy efficiency measures, resulting in a high energy intensity and large growth of energy demand. Energy-related CO2 emissions have increased significantly. At the same time, important investments in combined cycle gas turbines have taken place. This paper analyses whether, from a cost minimization viewpoint, renewable support has been the best policy for reducing emissions, when compared to the promotion of energy efficiency in sectors such as transportation or buildings. We use a model of the Spanish energy sector to examine its evolution in the time period considered under different policies. It is a bottom-up, static, partial equilibrium, linear programming model of the complete Spanish energy system. We conclude that demand side management (DSM) clearly dominates renewable energy (RE) support if the reduction of emissions at minimum cost is the only concern. We also quantify the savings that could have been achieved: a total of €5 billion per year, mainly in RE subsidies and in smaller costs of meeting the reduced demand (net of DSM implementation cost).

Suggested Citation

  • López-Peña, Álvaro & Pérez-Arriaga, Ignacio & Linares, Pedro, 2012. "Renewables vs. energy efficiency: The cost of carbon emissions reduction in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 659-668.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:50:y:2012:i:c:p:659-668
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.08.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512006635
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.08.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Labriet, Maryse & Cabal, Helena & Lechón, Yolanda & Giannakidis, George & Kanudia, Amit, 2010. "The implementation of the EU renewable directive in Spain. Strategies and challenges," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2272-2281, May.
    2. Mendiluce, María & Pérez-Arriaga, Ignacio & Ocaña, Carlos, 2010. "Comparison of the evolution of energy intensity in Spain and in the EU15. Why is Spain different?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 639-645, January.
    3. Batlle, Carlos & Vazquez, Carlos & Rivier, Michel & Perez-Arriaga, Ignacio J., 2007. "Enhancing power supply adequacy in Spain: Migrating from capacity payments to reliability options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4545-4554, September.
    4. Sorrell, Steve & Dimitropoulos, John & Sommerville, Matt, 2009. "Empirical estimates of the direct rebound effect: A review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1356-1371, April.
    5. Pedro Linares & Francisco Javier Santos & Mariano Ventosa & Luis Lapiedra, 2006. "Impacts of the European Emissions Trading Scheme Directive and Permit Assignment Methods on the Spanish Electricity Sector," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 79-98.
    6. A. Greening, Lorna & Greene, David L. & Difiglio, Carmen, 2000. "Energy efficiency and consumption -- the rebound effect -- a survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 389-401, June.
    7. Mendiluce, María & Schipper, Lee, 2011. "Trends in passenger transport and freight energy use in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 6466-6475, October.
    8. Linares, P. & Santos, F.J. & Pérez-Arriaga, I.J., 2008. "Scenarios for the evolution of the Spanish electricity sector: Is it on the right path towards sustainability?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4057-4068, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Galarraga, Ibon & Abadie, Luis M. & Ansuategi, Alberto, 2013. "Efficiency, effectiveness and implementation feasibility of energy efficiency rebates: The “Renove” plan in Spain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 98-107.
    2. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    3. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Measuring the rebound effect with micro data: A first difference approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-17.
    4. Kurt Kratena & Ina Meyer & Mark Sommer, 2013. "Energy Scenarios 2030. Model Projections of Energy Demand as a Basis to Quantify Austria's Greenhouse Gas Emissions," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46702.
    5. Guibentif, Thomas M.M. & Patel, Martin K. & Yilmaz, Selin, 2021. "Using energy saving deficit distributions to assess calculated, deemed and metered electricity savings estimations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    6. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    7. Rabindra Nepal & Muhammad Indra al Irsyad & Tooraj Jamasb, 2021. "Sectoral Electricity Demand and Direct Rebound Effects inNew Zealand," The Energy Journal, , vol. 42(4), pages 153-174, July.
    8. Papafragkou, Anastasios & Ghosh, Siddhartha & James, Patrick A.B. & Rogers, Alex & Bahaj, AbuBakr S., 2014. "A simple, scalable and low-cost method to generate thermal diagnostics of a domestic building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 519-530.
    9. Lemoine, Derek, 2020. "General equilibrium rebound from energy efficiency innovation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Frondel, Manuel & Ritter, Nolan & Vance, Colin, 2012. "Heterogeneity in the rebound effect: Further evidence for Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 461-467.
    11. repec:hal:gemwpa:hal-00991732 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Liu, Hongxun & Du, Kerui & Li, Jianglong, 2019. "An improved approach to estimate direct rebound effect by incorporating energy efficiency: A revisit of China's industrial energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 720-730.
    13. Freire-González, Jaume, 2017. "Evidence of direct and indirect rebound effect in households in EU-27 countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 270-276.
    14. Lee, Sungwon & Lee, Bumsoo, 2014. "The influence of urban form on GHG emissions in the U.S. household sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 534-549.
    15. Minoru Morita & Kazuyuki Iwata & Toshi H. Arimura, 2022. "The rebound effect in air conditioner usage: an empirical analysis of Japanese individuals’ behaviors," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 24(1), pages 99-117, January.
    16. Monjurul Hasan, A S M & Trianni, Andrea & Shukla, Nagesh & Katic, Mile, 2022. "A novel characterization based framework to incorporate industrial energy management services," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    17. Wang, H. & Zhou, P. & Zhou, D.Q., 2012. "An empirical study of direct rebound effect for passenger transport in urban China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 452-460.
    18. Zvingilaite, Erika & Klinge Jacobsen, Henrik, 2015. "Heat savings and heat generation technologies: Modelling of residential investment behaviour with local health costs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 31-45.
    19. Amjadi, Golnaz & Lundgren, Tommy & Persson, Lars, 2018. "The Rebound Effect in Swedish Heavy Industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 140-148.
    20. Chun, Natalie & Jiang, Yi, 2013. "How households in Pakistan take on energy efficient lighting technology," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 277-284.
    21. Benjamin Volland, 2016. "Efficiency in Domestic Space Heating: An Estimation of the Direct Rebound Effect for Domestic Heating in the U.S," IRENE Working Papers 16-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:50:y:2012:i:c:p:659-668. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.