Bottom-up analysis of energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction potentials in the cement industry for energy transition: An application of extended marginal abatement cost curves

Abstract

Demand-side energy savings are crucial to the on-going global energy transition. As the third-most energy-intensive sector and a major contributor to CO2 emissions, the cement industry has considerable potential for energy savings and CO2 abatement in Taiwan. This potential is conventionally measured using marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs), which are inherently flawed. When presented with multiple measures with the same negative cost, conventional MACCs tend to favour measures that produce small reductions in CO2 emissions over measures with larger reductions. In the current study, we investigated energy savings and CO2 abatement using an extended energy conservation supply curve (ECSC) and an extended MACC. The technical potential energy savings and CO2 abatement were respectively estimated at 5.98% of the sector’s final energy use and 3.88% of CO2 emissions in 2018. Overall, 51.2% of the electricity savings and 92.5% of fuel savings could be implemented cost-effectively. In the proposed approach, priority is given to cost-effective measures with the greatest potential in terms of energy savings and CO2 abatement. Our results help to elucidate the issue of energy efficiency in the cement industry, and provide a valuable reference for the formulation of effective energy policy.