Final and primary energy consumption of the residential sector in Spain and La Rioja (1991-2013), verifying the degree of compliance with the European 2020 goals by means of energy indicators

Among other things, the European Union climate and energy legislation package seeks to achieve a renewable energy contribution of 20% to total energy consumption by the year 2020. In addition, it also seeks to improve energy efficiency and to reduce the 2005 total primary energy consumption by 20% in that same year. In 2013, the residential sector of Spain consumed 15.0 Mtoe of final energy, representing 19% of total energy consumption. This sector has great potential for savings and energetic improvement due to the multitude of possible actions that can be taken to improve it. This paper presents a methodology for evaluating the final energy consumption, primary energy consumption, and contribution by renewable energy of the residential sector decomposed by energy source in any Autonomous Community and in Spain as a whole. The method is applied to the Autonomous Community of La Rioja and to Spain between 1991 and 2013. The results show a complete energy analysis of the Riojan and Spanish residential sectors, ultimately obtaining the key energy indicators to demonstrate the advances toward compliance with European goals for 2020, adapted to the residential sector. The results themselves serve as a control tool for energy planning.