Has electricity turned green or black in Chile? A structural decomposition analysis of energy consumption

• Published in: Energy (Oxford) Vol. 162; pp. 282 - 298
• Main Authors: Román-Collado, Rocío, Ordoñez, Manuel, Mundaca, Luis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Chile; Clean energy; Coal; Coal mines; Coal mining; Decomposition; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Economic development; Economic growth; Electricity; Electricity consumption; Energisystem; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Energy sources; Energy Systems; Engineering and Technology; Environmental Engineering; Environmental Sciences; Final energy consumption; Fossil fuels; Fuels; Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap; Imports; Miljövetenskap; Natural gas; Natural Sciences; Naturresursteknik; Naturvetenskap; Non-conventional renewable energies; Structural decomposition analysis; Teknik; Chile; Non-conventional renewable energies; Structural decomposition analysis; Final energy consumption; Chile; Coal
• ISSN: 0360-5442; 1873-6785
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.07.206

Since 2010, the Chilean government has backed a progressive increase of non-conventional renewable energies sources (NCRES) to put forward the country's energy independence from fossil fuels, and therefore from imports, and to reduce its CO2 emissions. The analysis of the final energy consumption changes via a structural decomposition analysis, based on the Input-Output Tables for Chile in the period 2008–2013, enables us to identify the key effects as well as the sectors and energy sources in this process. The results show that the scale and the intensity effects are the main drivers of the final energy consumption change. There is a significant increase of the final energy sources derived from natural gas (273%), electricity (23%) and oil (8%). The increase of the electricity consumption due to the scale, intensity and demand structure effects reveals a coupling with economic growth, lower energy efficiency and larger end-use exporter sectors (e.g., mining). Concretely, the use of coal for electricity generation increased in absolute (23,648 Tcal) and relative terms of total fossil fuels (34%). Despite the rapid deployment of NCRES, a short-term analysis suggests that more aggressive policy efforts are needed to effectively drive the transition towards a low-carbon energy system. •No decoupling process is found between energy consumption and economic activity.•The energy intensity effect is a driver of the final energy consumption changes.•The use of coal for electricity generation increased in absolute and relative terms.•The electricity consumption changes are driven by higher exports of the copper industry.•Energy efficiency plans should be focused on the coal and exporting industries.