Energy

Energy has been one of the key issues of the European ceramic industry. Because ceramic sectors are energy intensive (energy can account for up to 30% of their costs), the industry has looked into sustainable and renewable sources, e.g. the use of biomass in roof tiles sector in France. The energy efficiency of the ceramic industry has greatly improved over the last three decades due to investments in new energy technologies and a broad conversion from solid fuel to natural gas.

The entire industry cuts energy consumption. For example tile industry by using new technology and state-of-the-art machinery have made possible to reduce consumption to less than a half of what was needed in the 1970s.

Following the adoption of the directive for the liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets in 2003, industrial consumers such as the ceramic industry have been able to freely choose their supplier since July 2004. However, a European Commission energy inquiry of the concerns of consumers and new entrants in the energy sector pointed the insufficient development of wholesale gas and electricity markets and limited choice for consumers. To improve the regulatory framework for energy liberalisation, the EU Electricity & Gas markets: third legislative package was issued in September 2007.

The dominance of a few energy producers in each Member State represents a major obstacle to competition and competitive prices in electricity and gas markets. Cerame-Unie therefore calls for ambitious and effective initiatives facilitating access to natural gas.   Moreover, Cerame-Unie supports effective unbundling of historically integrated gas and electricity companies, increased transparency, the removal of contractual bottlenecks and further interconnections.

Regarding the energy efficiency, Directive 2004/8/EC on cogeneration (a technique allowing the production of heat and electricity in a single process) was issued in 2004 and is very important for ceramic sector. Some EU Member States have created incentives to create cogeneration in order to achieve higher energy efficiency, for instance Spain and Portugal.  In these countries, the use of co-generation is wide-spread in the ceramic industry.  Further incentives for cogeneration at EU level would be welcome by the ceramic industry.

Growing concerns on climate change and changing approaches to policy and legislation on energy market liberalisation, mean that energy remains high on the ceramic industry’s agenda. This becomes particularly relevant in light of the new EU targets for energy from renewable sources, to be fulfilled by 2020.