Libya Energy Situation

Libya
Flag of Libya			Libya Location
Capital			Tripoli (32°52′N 13°11′E)
Official Languages(s)			Arab (official), English, Italian
Government			Interim Government
Head of Government			Ali Seidan
Prime Minister
'Total Area '( km²)			1,759,540
Population			6,002,347 (July 2013 est.)
Rural Population			22% of total population (2010)
GDP (Nominal)			81.9 billion US $ (2012 est.)
GDP Per Capita			12,777 US$ (2012 est.)
Currency			Libyan Dinar
Time Zone
Calling Code
Electricity Generation			26.95 TWh/year (2008)
Access to Electricity			99.8%
Wind energy (installed capacity)			0 MW (2012)
Solar Energy (installed capacity)			5 MW (2012)

Overview

Libya is the second biggest North African country (1,76 sq km) and located between Algeria and Tunisia in the west and Egypt in the east, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the north and (from west to east) Niger, Chad and the Sudan in the south. Virtually a hundred percent of its land territory is land area. Apart from the access to the Mediterranean Sea (about 1,770 km of coastline), Libya has virtually no accessable water resources on the earth's surface, which consists to more than 90% of desert or semi-desert. Libyan climate ranges from Mediterranean along the coast line to extremely dry in the interior when going south. Although the barren, flat and undulating plains allow only a limited amount of land (1.03% of total territory) to be arable, Libya’s soil is hiding great richness. Most prominent natural resources are petroleum, natural gas and gypsum. Especially the first two natural resources are the main driving factor for the Libyan economy. Hydrocarbons contribute about 95% of export earning, 65% of the GDP and about 80% of government revenue. It is also due to the fossil resources, that Libya has always enjoyed a fairly high international interest and relevance. Although the revolution of 2011, which has brought the old regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to a downfall, has impeded economic activities, it is also widely considered to be an unique opportunity for entrepreneurial activity and thus economic growth.

The ethnic composition of the population is mainly given by Arabs, arabized Berbers, Tuareg and Tubu. A vast majority of approximately 97% of the population avows itself to the religion of the Islam (Sunni Muslim). Main national language is arabic.

Libyan politics have been marked by the Arabic spring that took place in 2011. It ended with the defeat of the old Libyan regime and the death of the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The ousted regime had been opposed by the National Transitional Council (NTC) that had formed in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. After the international recognition of the NTC as the governing body of Libya, an interim government has been officially inaugurated on the 24th of October 2011 with Abdel Rahim el Kib as the head of government. The constituent assembly is supposed to be elected in the first half-year of 2012.

Libya's economy is dominated by the oil sector. Around 95% of export revenues is generated by the energy sector. Besides the petroleum and petrochemicals industry, Libya is also active in the aluminum, iron and steel and cement industry. In 2012 crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas and chemicals were exported to Italy (23.5%), Germany (12.5%), China (11.3%), France (9.7%), Spain (7.6%), UK (4.7%) and US (4.5%). Libye mainly imports machinery, semi-finished goods, food, transport equipment, consumer products. The main import trading partners in 2012 were China (13.7%), Turkey (12.3%), Italy (8.7%), Tunisia (7.3%), South Korea (6.2%), Greece (5.4%) and Germany (4.9%).

Energy Situation

Energy Supply

In 2011, Libya has produced about 30,962 ktoe of energy, which is about 360,088.19 GWh. Clearly, crude oil is by far the most prominent energy source, making up almost 79% of energy production. Another interesting fact is that renewable energies (at least for the year of 2011) have been neglected entirely. More current sources suggest that renewable energy production has only risen to about 0.06%. Published by the IEA, the table below offers further information on Libya's total energy production in 2011.

Total energy production (2011)

Energy source	in ktoe	in %
Coal and peat	0
Crude oil	24,371	78.7
Oil products	0
Natural gas	6,419	20.7
Nuclear	0
Hydro	0
Geothermal, solar, etc.	0
Biofuels and waste	172	0.55
Electricity	0
Heat	0
Total1	30,962	100.00

¹Due to roundings, the percentages may not add up to a hundred.

Energy Consumption

The total final consumption was 22,035 GWh in 2011. Commercial and Public Services accounted for 36% whilst the residential sector amounted to 24% and the Industriy to 22%. The following table lists the energy consumtion of Libya accoring to various sector.

Sector	Consumption in GWh	in %
Industry	4,864	22
Transport	0	0
Residential	5,365	24
Commercial and Public Services	7,915	36
Agriculture / Forestry	2,292	10
Fishing	0	0
Other Non-Specified	1,599	7
TFC	22,035

Renewable Energy Sources

Solar Power

Libya has a great potential for solar energy. In the coastal regions, the daily average of solar radiation on a horizontal plane accounts to 7.1 kWh/m2/day whilst the radiation is 8.1 kWh/m2/day in the southern region. The average sun duration is of more than 3,500 hours per year.

Wind Power

The wind potential is good. The average wind speed at a 40 meter height is between 6-7.5 m/s. One of the several attractive locations along the Libyan coast is at Dernah where the average wind speed is around 7.5 metres per second.

Key Problems of the Energy Sector

There are several aspects of the Libyan energy sector that can be considered to be quite problematic. Due to the quantity of fossil energy sources, renewable energy sources have ever since been considered to be of secondary relevance. Although first efforts of intiating and developing a renewable energy sector under the pre-revolutionary government, the pursuit of a diversified and sustainable energy sector has been limited. Instead of being empathic on developing alternative energy sources, the old regime has strongly subsidised energy coming from domestic fossil sources. It developed and maintained a fairly one-sided economy that heavily relied (and still relies) on the occurence of fossils. This does not only aggravate future efforts to reform Libya's energy sector, it also cancels out the expected effect of renewable energies bringing along economic advantages. From a more general point of view, there has been no economic incentive to shift to a more sutainable energy mix, so far.

Policy Framework, Laws and Regulations

General Energy Policy, Energy Strategy

Regarding RE, the Renewable Energy Authority of Libya or REAOL has established a target of 10% renewables by 2025, which would account for a total capacity of 2219 MW. Intermediate targets are 389 MW by 2015, and 1069 MW by 2020.

RE Supporting Policies

So, far are no supporting policies for RE in Libya. There are no public competitive bidding for large-scale private RE projects, nor do obligation to conclude long-term power purchase agreements with RE producers excists. There are also not Feed-in Tariffs and no net-metering policy for small scale RE projects.

Regarding finance and investments, Libya does nor have an RE fund for financing RE projects. The currently planned projekts are planned to be financed through government budget. Since the power sector is still closed for private investors, there are nor financial guarantees to private investors to ensure payment under power purchase agreements by the Libyan government. Internatl text privilages are not provided for RE projects.

Institutional Setup in the Energy Sector

Post-revolutionary developments have seen the establishment of a Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy with Minister Awad Ibrahim Bryk as head. This is an encouraging step towards the integration of the subjects of renewable energy and energy efficiency into the national agenda, as both themes have not been given a ministerial status in the past. Moreover, Libya's energy sector unsurprisingly relied virtually solely on fossil fuels, with renewables playing a very negligible part if any at all. Energy prices for the domestic market were heavily subsidised by the government and renewable energies were not considered to be a likely alternative to the fossil energy resources.

These new developments could be considered to bear the potential of a turn of the tides, as Libya has not only seen the establishment of a new ministry, but also the resumed work of the Renewable Energy Authority of Libya (REAoL) that had accomplished remarkable pre-revolutionary work - although that work had only been in theory. Ambitious goals that have been described by REAoL, have never been considered or included in legal frameworks and official goals.

The state-owned electricity company General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) is responsible for power generation, transmission and distribution. The equivalent of this monopoly in the oil sector is held by the National Oil Corporation (NOC).

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Activities of Other Donors

GIZ has initiated a 1,000 Roofs Program, which seeks to install 1,000 PV roof-top systems with a total capacity of 3 MW. The chosen roofs are located throughout the country including remote areas as well as various cities. Installations can be on-grid and off-grid. Having the good experience in Germany, the Program can form a basis to establish further support instruments, such as a feed-in tariffs. REAOL is in charge of the Program.