If enough people make enough changes in their lives, thinking small means that climate change is not too big to tackle. Householders in Malta have been more successful at energy-saving measures in their homes than industry has been at cutting down on its own consumption.

Turning the TV off manually instead of leaving it on standby, charging mobile phones only for as long as needed and checking toilet cisterns for leaks are some home measures which all add up and pay off. Wasted water is wasted energy.

Ever since electricity bills started carrying an added surcharge to reflect international oil prices, the cost of electricity to the consumer has come closer to what it actually costs Enemalta to supply homes with energy. Local industry must make some changes too following the revelation that energy efficiency is well below par in several sectors with the textiles, rubber and plastics industry being among the poorest performers.

At an information event held earlier this month to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, the minister responsible for energy, Ninu Zammit, pointed to the Intelligent Energy Europe programme as a good instrument to help Malta address its energy challenges.

Insulation of external walls, more efficient insulation of rooftops and double glazing are all being introduced, but this is just the beginning. These are only minimum requirements for better energy performance in buildings. Government offers a subsidy for roof insulation leading to reduced energy consumption and has received 8,760 applications for a rebate on domestic appliances which use less energy.

In the industrial sector, correcting the power factor - a measure long recommended by Enemalta engineers - will save energy by improving transmission and distribution. Post-war turbines at the Marsa power station will have to be replaced with more efficient units.

Starting in the 1990s, water conservation measures combined with new technologies have brought the energy bill for seawater desalination down from nearly a quarter of the national electricity consumption to six per cent. A further target of five per cent has yet to be reached by bringing the energy used for producing one litre of water down to 4.4 kWh.

A National Energy Efficiency Action Plan is being put in place to promote solar water heating, photovoltaics and micro wind generation. Bringing in systems to increase efficiency with combined heat and power (CHP) will improve the performance of the tourism industry sector and reduce its carbon footprint.

Minister Zammit mentioned other measures ahead such as changing timer switches on street lights to light-sensitive sensors for year-round efficiency. More cycling lanes, trips saved by using the phone or e-mail and labelling of better performing vehicles are all being considered as further energy-saving measures.

Support schemes for small-scale generation from PV, wind and for solar water heaters is on the cards as well as net metering for electricity generation from domestic installation.

The yearly rate at which solar water heaters are being installed in Malta has risen from 360 in 2005 to 1,540 last year. The European average for energy generated by solar water heaters is 29 kWh for 1,000 people. Malta has a slightly higher rate at 35kWh per 1,000 capita but Cyprus leads the way at 479 kWh/1,000 people with solar water heating a legal requirement.

While the Maltese government has been footing a Lm277,000 subsidy for the local production of one million litres of biofuel (covering about one per cent of Malta's annual energy consumption) there are some constraints to expanding much further. It is considered that producing biofuel on a large commercial scale by growing fuel crops would be too land and water intensive. It is not likely that Malta will be adopting this measure which has met with much criticism abroad as land and water for food crops takes a higher priority.

Technologies involving the injection of carbon dioxide into the ground to keep it from aggravating climate change are being investigated. Deeper knowledge is required before "geological sequestration" applied to Malta's aquifers would ever be considered as a viable solution.

Yet Malta must decide on more local actions to cut carbon dioxide emissions in line with wider European efforts to combat climate change. A decision to switch from oil to gas for fuelling energy production at the power station could prove to be another step forward.

Connecting Malta and Gozo to the European electricity grid could allow exportation of excess energy generated at night if ways are not found to make use of it locally. An undersea cable carrying high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmitting power across the Sicily-Malta channel would stabilise our predominantly AC grid and reduce losses.

Because HVDC allows power transmission between unsynchronised AC distribution systems it can help increase system stability by preventing power failures from cascading from one part of a wider power transmission grid to another while still allowing power to be imported or exported in the event of smaller failures.

Energy ranks high as an area of interest in the 2007-2010 National Strategic Plan for Research and Development. As a factor in environmental protection, energy security and economic growth we have to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible said the Energy Minister. He added that a large scale offshore wind farm would cost around €5 million.

Government is still keeping an eye on research and development of offshore wind farming with the ongoing Scottish experiment involving two massive deepwater wind turbines supplying power to an oil rig.

What we are consuming

Collecting data on energy efficiency for Malta Resources Authority was carried out by Dr Vincent Buhagiar as part of the Odyssee-Mure project. Energy consumption trends in Malta were identified and compared with energy efficiency indicators to see how much and where energy is being wasted.

Malta's swing from an undeveloped country to an EU country has brought a greater demand for energy. The tourism industry, manufacturing and the building blocks industry all have their energy price. Compared to a general European increase of two per cent in energy efficiency (2000-2004) Malta has slipped backward with an average 57 per cent drop in efficient energy use by industry.

Fast food outlets, with their high rate of microwave oven use, have decreased our energy efficiency as a nation. Paper production is also a high-energy consumer while textiles, rubber and plastics industries in Malta saw more than a 100 per cent drop in energy efficiency in the years preceding 2004.

During the same period Maltese households improved their energy efficiency by nine per cent through a number of small steps, including lowering the temperature of their geysers in summer and switching off unnecessary lighting in the home. Shifting from electric radiators to gas ones made home heating three times more efficient.

A legal notice on energy performance of buildings, effective since the beginning of this year, lays out minimum requirements when constructing floors, windows, walls and roofs. Planning applications for building permits should be taking these into account. An upcoming energy certificate for public buildings in Malta has had to wait for the outcome of a decision over which software to use. A standard national calculation tool is being designed in conformity with EU methods.

When voluntary actions do not work then fiscal measures must take over but disincentives to energy-wasting behaviour on their own will not save the environment, observed Dr Buhagiar.

From vulnerable to intelligent

Patrick Lambert, director of the European Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovations, confirmed that climate change and a growing vulnerability to gas and oil imports had brought about the need for intelligent energy solutions. The Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme would address challenges faced both at EU level and by Malta in meeting the targets set for 2020.

One of the main pillars of competitiveness and innovation, IEE is intended to bring changes on the ground through a number of small steps. The executive agency is tasked with implementing programmes and giving feedback from projects back to the decision makers. The EU Energy Commission (DG Energy and Transport) is responsible for policies and guidelines.

By the end of the year an EU Strategic Energy Technical Plan was expected while this autumn would see a green paper on urban transport.

"Energy has never been as high on the political agenda as it is today," said Mr Lambert. Everywhere in Europe there is room for energy savings of between 20 and 30 per cent, depending on the sector.

Seventy per cent of the wind power sector's work force is made up of maintenance staff although a fragmented market meant that European qualifications in these fields still needed to be developed.

IEE projects are not about research or hardware (e.g., building wind turbines). Rather they are about addressing market access barriers to renewable energy. No large-scale investment is required but the project must involve European partners. The beneficiaries of a project should be made up equally of entrepreneurs, non-profit bodies such as energy agencies or city networks, and public agencies such as energy regulators or test facilities.

The opportunity for funding a project promoting industrial excellence is spurred by the added value at European level of potential energy savings across the EU of up to 25 per cent.

Projects in the cooling sector are a particular area of interest for Malta since cooling applications are now using up more energy than heating needs. Heating and cooling using a renewable source of energy, a measure left in the shade until now, will soon feature in an new legislative package on renewables.

Dealing with energy in transport, the Marco Polo programme encourages support by small and medium enterprises for a shift away from roads to greater use of waterways.

Funding is also available, and will be taken up by Malta, for a local or regional energy agency. Providing information on energy efficiency and training users of public buildings is possible within the IEE programme. Buildings are one of the key areas since an average 40 per cent of all energy consumption goes into powering them.

This year's budget for projects is €49 million, with usually around ten organisations as partners from five or six countries in each project, although fewer are acceptable. There must be a European dimension as well as a Maltese one or there would be no justification for EU funding.

Architects, bankers, local policy makers, urban planners, utilities, social housing companies and installers would all be valid partners in an IEE project.

Any project proposal must focus on showing clear results by means of performance indicators.

Mr Lambert advised starting early. "It takes longer than you think," he said of the preparation stage for a project followed by evaluation and contract negotiations leading up to the final signing of the proposal nearly a year later.

Next year a call for projects for 2009 will seek to bring innovative technologies, products and processes to the market place and includes an element of hardware.

www.intelmeter.com www.odyssee-indicators.org

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