Assessing energy transition in Mediterranean islands. A review

Abstract

Touristic islands around the world are facing crucial energy challenges, including fossil fuel dependency, high electricity costs, high environmental impact and vulnerability to EU climate change targets and policies. On May 18, 2017, fourteen EU countries signed a “Political declaration on clean energy for EU islands” with the aim of accelerating the clean energy transition on more than 2,700 islands in Europe, supporting islands in reducing their energy import dependency, maximizing distributed energy generation near consumption and adopting innovative energy solutions. However, most of the population on EU islands is concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea, in Spain, Italy and Greece. More specifically, six islands account for the majority of the island's population (approximately 10.78 million): Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Crete and Corsica.Realising the importance of the role of local and regional authorities in the islanded Energy Transition, the EU has triggered and supported the creation of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) for Climate & Energy and the initiative for Clean Energy of EU Islands. These instruments have promoted energy transition awareness among the municipalities and the importance of the bottom-up approach (from local to national). This paper proposes, based on a review of state-of-the-art energy models and methodologies, to identify the main gaps in specific energy indicators capable of easily modelling, assessing and monitoring progress towards the energy transition for policy makers. Furthermore, it presents the main barriers and constraints identified in island areas of Italy, Spain and Greece.

Keywords

• Energy transition
• Islands
• Regulatory framework
• Indicators
• Covenant of majors