Energy transition & geographic specificities

August 2020

Transition to renewable energy can help reducing EU:s dependency on energy imports from Russia and is essential for becoming carbon neutral. This put energy transition high on the agenda in various debates.

For that reason, we also went back to an internal exercise we run at Spatial Foresight in 2019 to see how energy transition might affect different types of territories with geographical specificities, mainly mountain areas, islands and sparsely populated areas. In many regards the rational still holds today.

A shift towards a green or carbon neutral economy implies considerable changes with regards to energy demand and supply. On one hand, more energy efficient products may reduce energy consumption, while at the same time shifting to e-solutions (e.g. to electric cars) and increasing demand will imply that energy savings risk to be eaten up by more energy consuming activities and devices. This phenomenon is also known as ‘Jevons paradox’ or ‘rebound effect’. On the other hand, energy production needs to shift towards renewable energy.

Energy transition means different things to different types of territories, depending on their structure of energy consumption, their potential for renewable energy production as well as the level of energy self-sufficiency, and the infrastructure for existing energy production, distribution and storage.

Transition challenges

The energy transition challenges for places with geographic specificities are very diverse. Some places have below EU average saving potentials due to lower population densities and more remote locations which offer less opportunities for energy savings in the transport and housing sectors, as well as less potential for industrial symbiosis processes. Other places, among them many islands or remote places have above EU average dependencies on fossil fuels as they are not sufficiently connected to energy grids. Furthermore, for some places remoteness, e.g. in mountain valleys, sparsely populated areas or on islands, implies longer transport routs (even in form on air or boat transport) which face particular challenges in terms of a transition to carbon neutral transport.

Transition potential