80% of the energy consumed depends on abroad
Even if the part of energy produced on national soil is increasing, it still only covers 19% of needs. Luxembourg therefore continues to import most of the gas and electricity it consumes.
Renewable energies
Even if the part of energy produced on national soil is increasing, it still only covers 19% of needs. Luxembourg therefore continues to import most of the gas and electricity it consumes.
It is one of the weak points of the country. The Grand Duchy is still far too dependent on external suppliers to supply it with energy. And at a time when international market prices are soaring, more autonomy would undoubtedly lighten the bill for consumers. This is, moreover, one of the arguments that the Luxembourg Minister of Energy regularly advances to encourage households or cooperatives to equip themselves with solar panels, farms to use anaerobic digestion or communities to use wind power. .
“First of all, what you self-consume does not cost anything, so you can resell the surplus kilowatts on the national network,” explains Claude Turmes (Déi Gréng). With additional insurance injection tariffs ” advantageous ” and whose value the State guarantees for 15 years. Predictability that allows you to better understand the amortization of the investment to be made to produce your own electricity.
And more and more individuals, municipalities or companies are taking the plunge. Hence the record year Luxembourg experienced in 2020 in terms of energy production from renewable sources: 979 GWh over twelve months. But if this power has grown by 22% in one year, it still only represents 19% of the energy needed in the country. A small part therefore in the national energy mix. Everything else therefore comes from power lines or pipelines connected to neighboring states.
THE’Luxembourg regulatory institute (ILR) which monitors the electricity and gas markets thus points out, in its 2020 report, the strong link between Luxembourg and abroad in terms of gas (more than 8,000 GWh imported) as well as for its electricity supply. (5.129 GWh). Links which, depending on the subject, are oriented towards one partner or another. Thus, Germany is the main source of electricity supply when it is Belgium which plays this role for the arrival of natural gas.
The government still intends to gradually loosen this lack of energy autonomy. While global consumption is not expected to drop by 2030, Luxembourg is committed to producing more “green energy”. Even double the current capacity, according to the PNEC adopted in 2019.
Indeed, the Integrated national energy and climate plan expects a “reference scenario” of 1,731 GWh produced nationally. Whether through wind turbines (installed on the territory or co-financed on energy islands in the North Sea), solar energy, hydroelectric dams, biomass, etc.
follow us on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to our 5 p.m. newsletter.