Changing Energy Requirements in the Mediterranean Under Changing Climatic Conditions

Christos Giannakopoulos, Panos Hadjinicolaou, Christos Zerefos and George Demosthenous
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Christos Giannakopoulos: Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, Athens 15236, Greece
Panos Hadjinicolaou: Energy, Environment and Water Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia 1061, Cyprus
Christos Zerefos: National Observatory of Athens, Athens 11851, Greece
George Demosthenous: Frederick University, Nicosia 1036, Cyprus

Energies, 2009, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: This study investigates the impacts of climate change on energy requirements in the Mediterranean. Energy requirements, especially for space heating and cooling, are closely linked to several weather variables, mainly air temperature. The analysis is based on daily temperature outputs from several regional climate models run at a resolution of 25 km × 25 km in the framework of EU project ENSEMBLES using the A1B emissions scenario. The impacts of changes in temperature on energy requirements are investigated using the concept of degree days, defined as the difference of mean air temperature from a base temperature. Base temperature should be chosen to coincide with the minimum energy consumption. In this way, changes in heating and cooling requirements between the reference and the future period are calculated and areas about to undergo large changes identified. These changes are calculated between a 30-year reference period 1961–1990 and a near future period 2021–2050 taking the ensemble mean of all regional climate models. The near-term future has been chosen instead of the frequently used end-of-the-century period to assist policy makers in their planning. In general, a decrease in energy requirements is projected under future milder winters and an increase under hotter summers.

Keywords: energy demand; heating; cooling; regional climate models; climate change; Mediterranean (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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