Abstract
Europe must move towards a 100% renewable transportation system for climate, energy and sustainability reasons. We estimate the capital and energy required for building and operating a renewable transportation system providing similar services as the EU-28 transport system of 2016. It could be based on: biogas or fuel cell vessels; liquid biogas powered aircrafts; electric railways and fuel cell or electric vehicles between major cities; and car sharing, electric buses and electric two- and three-wheelers, for short journeys. A system of charging posts on the streets and roads for passenger and commercial e-vehicles is studied. Alternatively, a Tracked Electric Vehicle system of continuous power on European roads would improve energy efficiency and the saving of scarce metals (Ni, Li), at a lower cost, if only national roads were electrified. The investment for the construction of the whole system would be 2.3–2.7% of the EU’s GDP per year for 30 years. The new system operation would require 16% less energy than that of 2016, with reduction of 70% in road transport. However, shipping and aviation would demand 162% and 149% more energy, respectively, if liquefied biogas were used as fuel. A type of land transport fully based on trains would provide a similar service to that of an electric vehicle fleet, with a 29% lower energy consumption.
Highlights
Transport is a fundamental instrument for the movement of goods and the free movement of persons in a globalized society
We estimate the annual energy consumed by the new renewable transport system and we compare it with the energy demand for transportation in 2016
In this work we analysed the energy costs required to transform the fossil-fuel-based European Union (EU) transportation system to a new one based on renewable energy sources
Summary
Transport is a fundamental instrument for the movement of goods and the free movement of persons in a globalized society. In 2016, the transportation sector represented 5% (9% including households cars fuels) of the total gross value added (GVA) of the European Union (EU) economy [1]. Logistics such as transport and storage account for 10–15% of the cost of a finished product for European companies [2]. Cars accounted for 71% of the passenger-kilometres travelled in 2016, while air travel represented 10.5% of the distance travelled in the same year, followed by buses and coaches (8.1%), railways (6.6%), powered two-wheelers (1.9%), tram and metro (1.6%)
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