Lithuanian and American scientists will carry out research into the transformation of Lithuania’s energy sector, the Lithuanian Energy Ministry has said.
The Energy Agency has signed an agreement with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on cooperation in conducting research in the field of renewable energy development.
Under the agreement, Lithuanian and American scientists will jointly conduct a comprehensive study of the Lithuanian energy sector and will prepare suggestions on how the country could become completely self-sufficient in electricity generation as soon as possible.
The study is expected to provide a transformation model of the Lithuanian energy sector and possible scenarios for the most economically efficient and advanced ways to move to the consumption of 100% of electricity produced from renewable energy sources.
“To move towards a 100% renewable energy and decarbonise our industry, we’ll need to more than triple the amount of renewable energy generation in Lithuania. This is a big challenge for a country that still imports two-thirds of its electricity,” Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys said during the signing ceremony.
NREL has developed a similar model for the transition of the energy sector from fossil fuels to a 100% renewable energy for the city of Los Angeles.
Lithuania plans to have 9 GW of installed renewable energy capacity and have more than 90% of energy demand coming from renewable energy sources until 2030.
According to Kreivys, Lithuania may need small nuclear reactors to decarbonise its industrial and transport sectors and satisfy growing electricity demand.
Renewable energy will be enough to cover 18 TWh of consumption estimated for 2030, but power demands will increase later, he said.
“We’ll need about 40 TWh of electricity. If we fully decarbonize our industrial and transport sectors, small nuclear reactors will probably be the solution,” the minister said.
According to Kreivys, the technology for small nuclear reactors is still being developed and is not yet available.
“We hope they will be available after 2035,” he said. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
