Abstract
All EU countries have targets for increasing the use of renewable energy at a national level. However this effort should become concrete at regional and local levels where investments on bioenergy are made. This study introduces a systematical and universally applicable method for constructing regional energy balance. This study focuses on the method how to combine specific regional primary energy sources with their end uses. The primary energy sources include different fuels and the net import of electricity. The energy end uses are heat, electricity and losses. The concept of the regional energy balance was illustrated through a case of South Karelia. The total use of primary energy in South Karelia was 25.2 TWh (or 91 PJ) in 2010 and the share of renewable energy sources was 65%. The regional energy balance analysis can be utilized as a guideline for strategically planning and allocating regional energy sources for example, increasing the use of renewable energy sources. It can provide local decision makers and shareholders about the current status of energy supply, convincing them to take proper actions and consider producing energy at a local and regional level.
Highlights
The rising prices of fossil fuels and EU targets for renewable energy are putting pressure on member states for increasing the use of biofuels
The use of primary energy sources in South Karelia is rather high compared to the area
Behind this is the influence of forest industry in South Karelia, especially the chemical pulp mills in the area
Summary
The rising prices of fossil fuels and EU targets for renewable energy are putting pressure on member states for increasing the use of biofuels. In Finland the share of renewable energy in 2010 was 26% (Figure 1) and the target for 2020 is demanding 38% from total energy consumption and 20% for transportation fuels. Today the greatest share of renewable energy in Finland is produced by the highly energy intensive forest industry with black liquor and other by-products. The share of forest industry by-products is annually about 16% of the total energy consumption in Finland [1].
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