Renewable fuels - A comparative assessment from economic, energetic and ecological point-of-view up to 2050 in EU-countries

Fuels based on renewable energy sources (RES) are considered as an important mean to cope with environmental problems in transport. The core objective of this paper is to investigate the perspectives of “renewable fuels” from economic, energetic and ecological points-of-view in a dynamic framework till 2050. Renewable fuels are various 1 and 2 generation biofuels as well as electricity and hydrogen from RES. The major results are: All analyzed fuels have lower CO2emissions than gasoline. An additional problem for mobility with hydrogen and electricity are very high costs of the corresponding vehicles. By 2050 these costs could be reduced due to technological learning effects and efficient policy measures (e.g. CO2-based tax). This leads to the final conclusion that “renewable fuels” will play a significant role only if the proper mix of CO2-taxes, intensified R&D and corresponding riding down the Learning Curve is implemented timely.