BERLIN — As Germany hurries up funding in renewables, the vitality consumption of its automakers reveals simply how reliant the nation’s most vital trade is on fossil fuels, a Reuters evaluation of environmental information exhibits.
Their dependence lays naked the hurdles automakers face in reworking their very own vitality consumption whereas transferring the transport sector, answerable for round 30 p.c of German vitality consumption, in the direction of electromobility.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and spiking gasoline costs have stepped up the urgency for German trade, which consumes one other 30 p.c of the nation’s vitality, to maneuver away from fossil fuels, with instruments akin to carbon offsets and renewable vitality certificates now not sufficient to satisfy the brand new aim of vitality independence.
Volkswagen relied on non-renewable vitality sources for round 80 p.c of its wants, whereas for BMW the determine was over 60 p.c, in accordance with 2021 Carbon Disclosure Venture (CDP) information, based mostly on 2020 figures supplied by the businesses.
Reliance on fossil fuels
Over half of the automakers’ vitality consumption was from fossil fuels, with the most important chunk from pure gasoline, in accordance with the CDP information, the world’s largest repository of environmental information.
Whereas automobile firms more and more have their very own renewable energy mills on-site, these coated a miniscule quantity of their world vitality urge for food – round 1 p.c for Volkswagen and even much less for Mercedes-Benz and BMW, in accordance with the info.
Mercedes’ most energy-efficient manufacturing unit in Sindelfingen, close to Stuttgart, sources 30 p.c of its vitality by way of photo voltaic panels on the roof, the corporate has stated.
The automaker stated in early April that renewables coated 45 p.c to 50 p.c of its vitality wants at current, and that it goals for 15 p.c to be met by way of on-site renewable energy mills by 2030.
BMW’s plant in Leipzig, Germany, generates 20 p.c of the vitality it wants for manufacturing from 4 on-site wind mills. The manufacturing unit builds full-electric and combustion engine vehicles together with the i3 full-electric hatchback and the two Sequence Gran Coupe.
BMW declined to say what quantity of its complete vitality consumption throughout Germany is generated from renewable sources on- or off-site, however a spokesperson stated it was not sufficient to cowl the automaker’s wants if the gasoline is switched off.
Tesla photo voltaic panels
Tesla’s new plant in Gruenheide close to Berlin has photo voltaic panels on the roof, however a spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the panels’ capability or whether or not the plant has every other renewable vitality sources.
“It is vital firms are open in regards to the electrical energy they devour,” stated Silke Mooldijk, an vitality researcher at environmental think-tank New Local weather Institute, which displays the vitality combine and carbon footprint of main firms.
“They’ve an vital position in reminding folks that there is nonetheless plenty of work to do,” Mooldijk added.
Knowledge from Germany’s setting company confirmed half the nation’s industrial vitality consumption in 2020 got here from gasoline or coal, a lot of it provided by Russia.
Bosch, the world’s largest auto provider, instructed Reuters it meets solely round 1 p.c of its vitality wants worldwide by way of on-site manufacturing of renewable vitality, with the most important chunk sourced from photo voltaic panels in India. It goals to lift this to five p.c by 2030, a spokesperson stated.
New funding lags
BMW stated in its responses to the CDP questionnaire that 39.5 p.c of its world vitality consumption was from renewable sources, based mostly totally on electrical energy it bought on the open market.
However greater than half of the renewable vitality bought by BMW is purchased within the type of so-called “unbundled vitality certificates” bought by renewable suppliers. This enables BMW to sign demand for renewable vitality to the market which ought to immediate funding in additional capability — however it doesn’t imply renewable vitality is definitely flowing into the carmaker’s vegetation.
Moreover, an oversupply of certificates from decades-old European hydropower vegetation means their sale doesn’t essentially spur new funding, vitality researcher Christoph Riechmann of consultancy Frontier Economics stated.
“The entire thing can be much less problematic if buying and selling in inexperienced vitality certificates wasn’t like a revolving change… this downside cannot be averted until there may be transparency for all clients on the origin of the electrical energy they purchase, for them to make a acutely aware selection,” Riechmann stated.
World’s first CO2-free automobile plant
BMW stated it was working to incentivize the development of latest vegetation through direct contracts with suppliers, and looking out into the way it might improve the proportion of vitality sourced on-site.
The automaker stated its new manufacturing unit in Debrecen, Hungary, the place manufacturing of the New Class all-electric automobile will launch in 2025, would be the world’s first automotive plant to dispense fully with fossil vitality sources in its manufacturing processes.
A major share of the plant’s electrical energy might be generated straight on website. The rest might be coated by 100% renewables, the overwhelming majority of which can come from regional sources, BMW stated in a press release.
Of their bid to free themselves of fossil fuels, automakers should discover alternate options for heating manufacturing halls and paint outlets, at present achieved primarily by way of gasoline.
Alongside looking for different types of vitality, Mercedes is making an attempt to easily scale back its demand for warmth by preserving manufacturing halls cooler, its finance chief Harald Wilhelm stated on an earnings name earlier this week.
Simply 12 p.c to 13 p.c of the heating consumed by the three main carmakers is generated from renewable sources, the Carbon Disclosure Venture information confirmed.
Some automakers, together with Porsche and Audi, use mixed warmth and energy vegetation, which generate warmth by way of burning biomass waste, however there may be sometimes not sufficient biomass for this to be achieved at scale, Albert Waas, automotive skilled and associate at Boston Consulting Group, stated.
“Electrical energy is less complicated to inexperienced,” Mercedes’ manufacturing chief, Joerg Burzer, stated at a latest convention. “Vitality is tougher.”