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Indicator Assessment
The EU’s power generation sector is decarbonising. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity of power generation is continuously falling across the EU. Supported by EU policies such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the Renewable Energy Directive and legislation addressing air pollutant emissions from industrial installations, there has been a gradual switch from coal to renewable fuels and natural gas, and the efficiency of transformation processes has improved across the sector. By 2019, the GHG emission intensity of electricity generation nearly halved compared with 1990. Were the declining trend of the past decade to continue linearly, EU electricity generation would fully decarbonise by 2050. Additional policies and measures will be needed to enhance progress, as outlined in the European Commission’s proposals to raise the EU greenhouse gas emission reductions target for 2030 from 40 % to 55 % below 1990 levels and to reach climate neutrality by 2050.
The GHG emission intensity of total electricity generation in the EU-27 was 45 % lower in 2018 than in 1990 (decreasing from 510 g CO2e/kWh to 281 g CO2e/kWh over the period). This corresponds to a decrease of 2.1 % per year, on average, in that time. Until 2010, the increased efficiencies of transformation from fossil fuels to electricity played a role in decreasing carbon intensities, spurred also by the need to comply with emission limit values set under industrial emissions legislation, such as the Large Combustion Plants Directive 2001/80/EC (EU, 2001). Since 2010, the decrease has been almost exclusively because of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable fuels in electricity generation, with prices for emission allowances under the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU, 2018) increasing in relevance especially since 2019. According to the EEA early estimates, the EU’s GHG emission intensity of electricity generation continued to decrease also in 2019, reaching 249 gCO2e/kWh. If the observed trend were to continue, electricity generation could be fully decarbonised by around 2050 in the EU-27. Such a decrease would be consistent with the EU’s ambition to reduce greenhouse gases by 55 % in 2030 (compared with 1990) and to reach carbon neutrality in 2050. However, additional policies and measures are needed to make it happen.
Member states differ significantly with regard to the GHG intensity of their electricity production. In 2018, Estonia, Poland, Cyprus, and Greece had the highest electricity generation GHG intensity in the EU. This was the result of using solid fossil fuels and having relatively fewer renewables and limited, or no, nuclear plants in their national electricity mixes. The GHG intensities for electricity production were lowest in Sweden, Lithuania and France due to their high share of low-carbon electricity sources (nuclear and renewable power).
Regarding national achievements, the highest rates of decarbonisation in electricity production over the 1990-2018 period were recorded in Luxembourg (85 % decrease), Lithuania (83 % decrease), France (75 % decrease), Denmark (74 % decrease) and Slovakia (73 % decrease). In non-EU EEA countries, all electricity produced in Iceland and most produced in Norway comes from renewable sources, and hence, their GHG emission intensities are very low (0 in Iceland and 18 g CO2e/kWh in Norway). Turkey has a relatively high GHG emission intensity of electricity generation (535 g CO2e/kWh), whereas for the UK it is close to the EU-27 average.
Greenhouse gas emission intensity is calculated as the ratio of CO2 equivalent emissions from electricity generation and gross electricity generation.
Grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt hour (g CO2e/kWh)
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No targets have been specified
The GHG intensity of total electricity generation is taken as the ratio of CO2 equivalent emissions from all electricity production (both from main activity producers and auto-producers) to total electricity generation, including electricity from nuclear plants and renewable sources.
For main activity producers, the CO2e emissions from electricity generation only (i.e. excluding emissions resulting from heat production), were estimated as follows:
a) Estimating the transformation input for gross heat production by multiplying gross heat production (ESTAT codes GHP_MAPCHP and GHP_MAPH) by 90% (the assumed efficiency for heat production);
b) Estimating the transformation input for electricity generation by subtracting the estimated transformation input for gross heat production from total transformation input for electricity and heat generation (ESTAT codes TI_EHG_MAPE_E, TI_EHG_MAPCHP_E, and TI_EHG_MAPH_E);
c) Multiplying the ratio of b) and the transformation input for electricity and heat generation (ESTAT codes TI_EHG_MAPE_E, TI_EHG_MAPCHP_E, and TI_EHG_MAPH_E) to total CO2e emissions from public electricity and heat production (1A1a from the EEA data viewer).
The reported CO2e emissions in class 1A1a do not include CO2e emissions from autoproducers. Emissions from electricity generated by autoproducers were estimated by multiplying the ratio of the energy input for autoproducers and the energy input for main activity producers by the CO2e emissions from main activity producers (as calculated in steps a-c above). The energy input for electricity generation by autoproducers was estimated using the same method as for main activity producers (a and b above) using the ESTAT codes GHP_APH and GHP_APCHP for gross heat production and TI_EHG_APE_E, TI_EHG_APCHP_E, and TI_EHG_APH_E for transformation input for electricity and heat production.
A zero CO2e emission factor was applied to nuclear power and to renewables (including the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste), as the method does not take into account life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. This applies also to solid biofuels: in accordance with the United Framework Convention on Climate Change Reporting Guidelines, biofuel-related emissions have to be reported as a memorandum item in greenhouse gas emission inventories, with the assumption being that harvesting emissions would be shown as changes in carbon stocks in the land use, land use change and forestry sector, not in the energy sector. This should not be interpreted, however, as an endorsement of default carbon neutrality or the sustainability of biofuels.
The denominator of the GHG intensity of total electricity production is the sum of electricity produced from main activity producers (ESTAT: GEP_MAPE and GEP_MAPCHP) and autoproducers (ESTAT: GEP_APE and GEP_APCHP).
Calculation Formula: (CO2e * ((ei_MAP – dh_MAP/0.9) / ei_MAP)) * ((ei_AP - dh_AP/0.9) / (ei_MAP - dh_MAP / 0.9)) + CO2e * ((ei_MAP – dh_MAP/0.9) / ei_MAP))) / (GEP / 85.98), where:
Dataset used:
CO2e emissions (EEA):
nrg_bal_c (Eurostat):
Indicators:
Products:
Abbreviations:
No methodology for gap filling has been specified. Probably this info has been added together with indicator calculation.
No methodology references available.
No uncertainty has been specified
No uncertainty has been specified
No uncertainty has been specified
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/overview-of-the-electricity-production-3/assessment or scan the QR code.
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