Abstract :
[en] The current approaches to achieving a successful energy transition predominantly focus on two key
pillars: expanding renewable energy deployment and enhancing energy efficiency in technologies
and processes. While these strategies are essential, they alone are insufficient to achieve climate
targets due to the complex nature of energy systems. To truly transform our energy landscape, a
more holistic approach is necessary, one that integrates renewable energy technologies and efficiency
measures across all sectors, including industry, transportation, and buildings, while also recognizing
and addressing energy sufficiency, an area that remains largely underexplored. Energy sufficiency,
although often conflated with energy efficiency, has the potential to play a game-changing role in
the energy transition. Rather than focusing solely on optimizing the energy performance of existing
systems, energy sufficiency seeks to reduce overall energy consumption by encouraging less energy-
intensive behaviors and practices at both the individual and societal levels. This shift in perspective is
essential in the context of sustainability and achieving the ambitious energy goals set by governments
and organizations worldwide.
This study employs PyPSA-Eur, a sector-coupled model designed to optimize multi-energy systems,
to analyze the energy frameworks of 28 interconnected European countries. By incorporating energy
efficiency and sufficiency measures across a range of sectors, the study investigates how energy effi-
ciency and reducing unnecessary energy demands can contribute to a more sustainable and resilient
energy future. The results indicate that efficiency (mainly through the electrification of the energy
system) reduce total system losses to 33% of primary energy, down from over 50% in 2020. In-
corporating sufficiency measures further decreases losses by an additional 6%, while lowering CO2
emissions by 30%. The study emphasizes that energy transition requires a comprehensive approach
that includes not only energy efficiency and renewable energy integration but also a focus on energy
sufficiency.
