A method is presented for cross-country, cross-time comparison of energy efficiency developments in the manufacturing industry. The method is based on the use of physical production data as a measure of activity growth for the manufacturing industry. The methodology was applied to the pulp and paper industry of eight countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). With the methodology it is possible to follow energy efficiency developments, separately, for fuel and electricity consumption. Between 1973 and 1991, the production growth in the pulp and paper industry in the analysed countries would have resulted in an average increase in the primary energy consumption by 42%. Changes in the product mix had hardly any effect on the primary energy consumption. Because of energy efficiency improvements, the growth of primary energy consumption was limited to only 16%. The average annual efficiency improvement amounted to 1.6%. The methodology presented enables physical energy efficiency comparisons to be made between countries without the need for data at the process level.@en

International agreement has been reached to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. One important way of decoupling CO2 emissions from economic growth is by introducing technical measures to improve energy efficiency. In this article, we assess the influence of developments in energy efficiency and economic structure on the total primary energy consumption in the Netherlands over the period 1980-1995. We find a distinct decoupling of the economic growth and energy consumption of 1.5% per year in the 15-year analysis period. We measure (technical) changes in energy efficiency by changes in the energy consumption per physical unit of production or activity. The aggregate rate of (technical) energy-efficiency improvement was 1.4% per year over the period 1980-1995. The Use of physical production indicators makes it possible to measure energy-efficiency developments without detailed surveys at a very low level of aggregation. When we look at economic structural changes over this period, we find that (i) no substantial shift took place at the level of the economic sectors that we distinguish; (ii) the most energy intensive subsectors grew much faster than the total economy; and (iii) at the subsector level, on average, a sizable decoupling of physical production and value added occurred. We conclude that structural changes, that is, changes in the composition of the economy, did not lead to a net decrease in the energy intensity of the Netherlands over the period 1980-1995.@en

The development of combined heat and power generation (CHP) in the period 1988-1993 is described, together with the prospects until the end of the century. The CHP capacity in the Netherlands has already shown a considerable increase in the period 1978-1988, covering about 19% of total electricity consumption. This capacity was mainly connected to industrial steam generation and was privately owned. In the period 1988-1993 the application of CHP steadily grew and spread to other sectors than industry. More important, the Dutch energy companies, as part of plans to reduce the environmental effects of energy supply, developed activities to expand strongly the application of CHP up to the year 2000. The realisation of these plans is underway, and current developments make it likely that by the year 2000 about 50% of electricity consumption in the Netherlands is covered by CHP plants.@en

A monitoring method was developed with which changes in the energy consumption of a country can be analyzed. A special feature of this method is that we used physical instead of economic indicators of activity wherever possible. The method distinguishes between the influences of improved energy efficiency and structural changes. With this method, the energy consumption in the Netherlands was studied for the period 1980-1990. The energy-to-GDP ratio decreased by 2.1% annually between 1980 and 1985 and by 0.3% between 1985 and 1990. A large part of this decrease can be attributed to the decreasing specific energy consumption in the subsectors.@en

International comparison of energy intensity is receiving increased scientific and political attention. International comparisons may help in identifying the potentials for energy intensity reduction. Knowledge of these reduction potentials can be used as the basis of national policies to reduce energy intensity, and also for designing international actions to curb the threats of climate change. Although we showed in a previous paper that indicators based on physical production data are well suited for international comparison of energy intensity, many potential problems exist regarding the availability and quality of energy and production data needed for such indicators. We studied these data problems for physical energy intensity indicators for theiron and steel industry. We started by comparing the energy data from four international data sources. It turned out that quite some mistakes are made in the reported energy data, which makes reliable international comparison of countries difficult. The available production data, and the methodology of using physical production indicators, turned out to be less problematic. We found that the accuracy of physical energy intensity indicators is, to a large extent, determined by the accuracy of the energy consumption data used. We recommend that energy analysts be careful in using energy data for international comparisons. We also recommend that national and international statistical organizations put more effort in assuring the quality of the energy consumption data in their publications.@en

Since 1992, Long-Term Agreements on energy efficiency improvement have become the main policy instrument for energy conservation in The Netherlands. This paper investigates whether these agreements bring about improvements in energy efficiency additional to those that would occur anyway, were there no such agreements. The major part of the paper explores two possible methods to isolate the impact of the agreements on energy conservation. The first method, which is based on a bottom-up approach, assesses the actual outcome by analysing the effects that changes in the firms' investment behaviour have on industrial energy conservation. The second method, which is based on a top-down approach, assesses the actual outcome by comparing the monitored energy efficiency improvements with modelled, estimated efficiency improvements in the 'business-as-usual case'. The main conclusion is that between a quarter and a half of the energy savings in Dutch manufacturing industry can be attributed to the agreements.@en

Long-term agreements (LTAs) with industry were added to the mix of energy-policy instruments in The Netherlands at the beginning of the 1990s. Within a few years these agreements have become very important for the industrial energy-conservation policy. In this study we assessed the extent to which the targets set out by the government were achieved. To this end we studied: (1) whether the original policy targets for industry were adequately translated to the contracted LTAs; (2) whether the LTAs achieved the contracted goals; and (3) whether the monitoring methodologies that were developed ensure a complete, comparable and objective monitoring of the energy-intensity developments in manufacturing industry. The policy target for manufacturing industry was to decrease energy intensity by 19% in the period 1989-2000 (excluding feedstocks). It turned out to be possible to contract LTAs that cover 72-75% of the energy consumption in manufacturing industry. The average of the contracted LTA targets amounts to an 18% intensity decrease. The average goal achievement of the LTAs in the period 1989-1997 turned out to be in accordance with the contracted targets, although more than half of the LTA sectors are lagging behind the agreed rate of intensity decrease. For each of the LTAs a monitoring methodology was developed. Some aspects of these monitoring methodologies have resulted in the fact that the LTA monitoring does not ensure a comparable and objective monitoring of the energy-intensity results in the LTAs. Overall, we conclude that the monitoring of the energy-intensity developments in the long-term agreements' sectors is insufficiently transparent. We recommend a stricter enforcement of uniform monitoring requirements in a new generation of LTAs and independent supervision and verification of the monitoring results.@en

We studied energy efficiency trends in the Dutch manufacturing industry between 1995 and 2003 using indicators based on publicly available physical production and specific energy consumption data. We estimated annual primary energy efficiency improvements in this period at 1.3% on average, with the individual sub-sectors ranging between -0.1% and 1.5%. Energy efficiency developments with respect to electricity, fuels/heat and non-energy use have been monitored separately and are shown to differ significantly (for the sum of the sectors studied: 1.9% for electricity, 2.6% for fuels/heat and -0.1% for non-energy use). We combined our results with those from a previous, similar study for 1980-1995 and show that over the full time period, efficiency improvements of 1% per year have been achieved on average. Based on comparison with other sources and a detailed uncertainty analysis, we conclude that we developed a reliable top-down monitoring framework for studying energy efficiency trends of the manufacturing industry that can also be applied in other countries where similar data are available. We also showed that substantial differences exist between energy consumption data available from energy statistics and according to the Long Term Agreement monitoring reports, stressing the need for ongoing independent checks of available energy consumption data to avoid problems in future evaluations of energy efficiency policies.@en

Decreasing the energy intensity of processes and activities is an important means by which to reduce energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the near future. Monitoring of the developments in energy intensity is necessary in order to check whether policies to decrease energy intensity have the desired effect. Value-based indicators have been used in many such monitoring studies. It has been suggested only recently that physical indicators might lead to a better understanding of energy intensity developments. In this paper we aim at developing meaningful physical energy intensity indicators for all sectors of the Dutch economy and to study the sectoral energy intensity developments for the period 1980-1995 by means of these indicators. It turned out to be possible to develop aggregate activity indicators on a physical basis for most of the subsectors. Physical and value-based energy intensity indicators yielded substantial differences in the energy intensity developments calculated. On average, the annual decrease in energy intensity for the period 1980-1995 was 1.4%, calculated on the basis of physical energy intensity indicators, and 1.6% on the basis of economic indicators. The methodology based on physical indicators turned out to be suitable for monitoring energy intensity developments. However, more data are required and thorough analysis of the energy consumption per subsector is necessary to improve this type of analysis based on physical activity indicators. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.@en

In this study possible techniques of recovering CO2 from large-scale industrial processes are assessed. The largest and most concentrated CO2 sources in Dutch industry are identified, and the technical and economic feasibility of recovering CO2 from these sources is assessed. Nearly 20% of the Dutch industrial CO2 emissions may be avoided. The mitigation costs are calculated to be between US$ 8 and US$ 46 per tonne of CO2 emission avoided, for the different sectors considered. These cost figures indicate that CO2 recovery from industrial processes and from power plants are competitive options.@en