Policy design challenges to address the energy transition in EU small islands

Dr. Ulrike Lehr, Institute for Economic Structures

Research (GWS, Osnabrück, Germany)

• Islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and over-dependent on fossil fuels and energy imports.

• Many of Europe’s 2400 islands are small isolated systems and small markets.

• 15 million Europeans live on Islands

• Do they have the potential to be frontrunners in the clean energy transition by adopting new technologies and implementing innovative solutions?

• How do current costs compare to prices and what are likely future pathways?

EU Islands

• Clean energy for EU islands, initiative launched in May 2017 in Malta, EC and 14 EU countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden) signed a Political Declaration.

• In 2018, the ‘Clean energy for EU islands secretariat launched

• Island Guide to clean energy transition research published in June 2019 valuable

collection of sources and examples

• The Smart Islands Initiative; bottom-up; European island local authorities; tapping the potential of islands to function as labs for technological, social, economic and political innovation.

• Thus far, no additional binding targets, no policy, no quantitative connection to Clean energy 4all Europeans package.

EU activities

24 partners, 12 european islands represented

Azores Balearic Baltic

(Fehmarn)

Canary Corsica Crete

Cyprus West Indies

Madeira

Malta Sardegna Sicily

Climatologists and economists are involved, working together in the modelling of the components of the Impact Chains, per sector.

• Size – economies of scale unfavorable

• Seasonal changes in demand due to tourism

• Connection to mainland makes own decisions obsolete

• Connection to mainland makes own decision impossible

• Subsidized prices make render more sustainable solutions too costly

• Increasing challenges from climate change:

• high electricity demand for cooling during heat waves or for desalination during drought

• High vulnerability of centralized infrastructure during storms & floods

Energy challenges

• The industrial activities are very scarce if not completely absent, and the electricity demand is

mostly due to the residential sector.

• The electricity production takes place mainly through a diesel generation plant largely oversized

compared to the winter demand, because it has to be ready to cover summer peak loads.

• The plant size is proportioned to the touristic flux of the island, more tourists means bigger

plant. Thus, the energy generation is inefficient and it has high operating costs, much higher

than the continent, due to the its inconstant use, due to the plant maintenance, and due to the

supply from the mainland with tankers.(source: smart islands EU)

• BUT: size can be a benefit, enabling microgrids and district heat

Size – economies of scale unfavorable… but

Possible measures

Demand side

• E.g. Cyprus: Upgraded street light

• Crete: LED lighting and management system in transport tunnels and airport interchanges

Supply side

• E.g. Canaries:

• El Hierro, wind-pumped hydro power station;

• La Graciosa, Electric microgrid (powered mainly by PV) with battery and electric vehicles;

• Punta Jandía village hybrid system wind-diesel system (plus H2 system)

El Hierro island

Wind-Pumped-Hydro power station – 5th FP EUROPEAN COMMISSION, DG TREN Contract Nº: NNE5-2001-00950

"Implementation of 100% RES Project for El Hierro Island -Canary Islands

Project Coordinator: ITC

EL HIERRO WIND-PUMPED-HYDRO SYSTEM

Area 278 km2

Max. Height 1.501 m.

Population 10,587 inhab.

Electricity Plant (Diesel) nominal power

14.9 MW

Peak demand 8.1 MW

Wind Farm (5 ENERCO E-70) 11,5 MW

Hydroelectric Substation 11,32 MW

Pumping Station 6 MW

Upper Reservoir 384.000 m3

Lower Reservoir 158.000 m3

Height of upper reservoir 700 m

New Diesel systems 0

RES penetration (2018) 57,5 %

Total energy

45 GWh RES: 27 GWh

Diesel: 18 GWh

The wind-pumped-hydro system

allows for an annual penetration of

RES of aprox. 60 %

Samsø– the Danish energy revolution

• Citizen involvement and co-ownership

• Use the size effect for district heating

• Use agriculture for provision of biomass (straw)

• Use size for improving transport

• In summer hundreds of yachts consume a lot of electricity. PV combined with innovative battery packs take care of the seasonal peak-time demand

• The Danish island of Samsø has become a leader in combatting climate change, with 100% power independence in less than five years thanks to a community-wide commitment.

• Wind energy, central heating

• Electric, self-drive cars by 2030

GRAN CANARIA REVERSE PUMPED-HYDRO SYSTEM • The reverse hydro-pumping power station Chira-Soria

is being built.

• Operation foreseen for 2025

• This power plant will contribute to mitigate the impact

of the integration of large amounts of marine power in

the Gran Canaria grid.

Source:

Red Eléctrica de

España.

Investment 320 M€

6 reversible turbines

• Pump = 6 * 36.7 MW = 220 MW

• Turbine = 6 * 33.3 MW = 200

MW

Penstock = 19.5 km. 5 m diameter

Connecting cables = 18 km

36% of peak

demand of

Gran Canaria

Chira: 901 m; 5,6 hm³

Soria: 608 m; 32,2 hm³

MARINE ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

SOCLIMPACT project • Identifies and assesses hazard factors, associated risks and

impacts of climate change

• Addresses strategies to adapt marine RES to extreme weather

events and minimize negative impacts of climate change

• Will propose cost-effective actions to reduce vulnerability and

strengthen the resilience of the marine RES systems and its

associated electrical infrastructure

A major concern related to these capital intensive marine energy systems, is

assuring an economic useful life beyond their PAYBACK periods; an issue that has

to be addressed when faced with the growing risk of extreme weather events

induced by climate change, with potential to destroy off-shore power generation

systems.

• Assessing these climate change impacts and

proposing solutions for mitigating them, will

contribute to the reduction of risk, making

investment in marine energy projects more

attractive to private investors.

• Island system operators faces a growing challenge of bringing balance to electricity supply and demand, in a context of rapid growth of non-dispatchable RES power generation

• Challenges for overcoming existing barriers to RES penetration in electrical island systems, poses new opportunities for complementary technologies such as energy storage systems

Conclusions