National energy dependence increased 4.2 percentage points to 69.9% in 2022, reinforcing the growing trend registered since 2020, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced this Friday.
Energy dependence results from the relationship between net energy imports and domestic energy use.
According to the “Physical Energy Flow Account 2000-2022” of the INE, in 2022 a slight increase of 0.1% in energy flow exportsinterrupting the downward trend observed since 2017 and reflecting the increase in exports of petroleum products (+3.5%), namely kerosene and jet fuel (aviation fuel, +160.0%), gasoline (+47.1%) and fuel oil (+8.2%).
In the opposite direction, the decrease in highway diesel exports stands out (-45.4%).
Between 2021 and 2022, the INE reports a 1.6% increase in energy use by familieswith increases in the use of heat (+10.5%), gasoline without biocomponents (+8.0%) and diesel for transportation without biocomponents (+5.1%).
On the contrary, in the domestic sector, reductions were observed in the use of refinery gas, ethane and LPG (-8.1%), natural gas without biocomponents (-6.9%) and electricity (-2.5%). .
In the branches of economic activity, between 2021 and 2022, there was an increase of 0.9% in energy use, with increases in the use of gasoline without biocomponents (+8.2%), wood, wood waste and others solid biomasses, charcoal (+5.8%) and diesel for transport without biocomponents (+4.9%).
On the contrary, the use of natural gas without biocomponents (-11.1%), heat (-5.7%) and liquid biofuels (-2.8%) decreased.
The data published this Friday by the INE also show that the extraction of natural energy resources (endogenous resources) decreased by 4.1% in 2022, but was still 28.8% higher than the annual average for the period 2000-2022.
The use of waste for energy purposes increased by 1.4% compared to the previous year, which represents a value 21.2% higher than the average of the time series analyzed.
The latest edition of the “Physical Energy Flow Account” also shows that, in 2022, there was a 4.5% decrease in the energy intensity of the Portuguese economy (ratio between net domestic energy use and Domestic Product Gross (GDP) at constant prices), reflecting a 2% increase in energy use, lower than the positive variation of 6.8% of GDP in real terms.
According to the INE, this is the fifth consecutive year of reduction in the energy intensity of the economy and the lowest result since 2000, the first year of the series.
In 2021, the last year with information available for the European Union (EU), Portugal was the third Member State with the lowest energy intensity in the economy.
Regarding electricity production from renewable sources, it decreased by 6.1% in 2022, mainly due to lower water availability (-45.1%).
Even so, the contribution of renewable energies to electricity production was 51.%, the second highest value in the period 2000-2021, only surpassed by 2021, with 52.9%.
This result reflected the combined effect of the elimination of coal use, due to the closure in 2021 of the last two coal-fired electricity production plants in Portugal, with the increase in the use of renewable sources, with an emphasis on solar energy in 2022 (+38.7%).
Also according to the INE, in 2022 energy uses in the manufacture of coke plants and oil refining increased by 5.6% compared to 2021, reversing the decrease observed since 2017, the year in which the maximum in the series analyzed was recorded.
The determining factors of this growth were the increase in the production of kerosene and jet fuels (+74.5%), other petroleum products (+9.7%), gasoline (+4.7%) and residual fuel oil (+4.4%).
Source: Observadora
