Current Energy Balance, Scenarios for Future Energy Consumption and Evaluation of Energy Policy Measures – Guide to a Lucerne 2000 Watt Society
Since 2006, the canton of Lucerne has pursued the vision of a 2000-watt society. In order to develop concrete steps to implement this vision, the cantonal Environment and Energy department commissioned Moritz Kulawik to draw up basic principles of energy policy as part of his master thesis. According to its accounting, the average energy consumption of Lucerne residents today corresponds to a primary output of 6,900 watts and comes to a good 90 percent from imported fossil fuels and nuclear fuels. The estimated gray energy of imported consumer goods increases this per capita consumption by a further 28 percent. Based on the calculated energy balance, an individual lowering path was defined for the canton, which represents the necessary reduction in consumption up to 2100. A target scenario also represents the possible design of the energy mix by 2050, compared to the continuation of the previous energy policy, which falls too short to reach the 2000-watt targets.
In addition, a wide range of instruments and measures for a future energy policy could be evaluated in interviews with eleven actors from the energy policy environment of Lucerne. With an adapted form of utility analysis, all experts rated both effectiveness and feasibility of the measures. A comparison of the assessed packages of measures shows that, in principle, economic steering instruments are considered to be more effective than subsidy programs in terms of effective measures and measures in the area of buildings compared with the mobility sector. The result of the evaluation is a first process matrix with implementation recommendations for the design of the energy policy of the canton of Lucerne.
