Resource of energy efficiency in Russia: scale, costs, and benefits

This paper considers Russian economy-wide energy efficiency potential by sectors and energy carriers. The assessment shows that Russian technical energy efficiency potential exceeds 45% of 2005 primary energy consumption or 294 mtoe (excluding associated gas flaring). This is about the annual primary energy consumption in France, the UK, or Ukraine, half of that in Japan, and over 2% of the global primary energy consumption. Related CO2 emission reduction potential is 50% of the Russian 2005 emission. Special attention is given to methodological issues in aggregating potentials identified in final energy use and to the evaluation of indirect energy efficiency gains. This study found that the energy efficiency potential doubles, if associated reduction of energy use, as well as technology progress, in energy production and transformation are accounted for. Cost curves for energy efficiency improvements were developed using the incremental cost approach to identify the cost-effective part of the potential.