Energy in Montecara
Energy in Montecara is a matter of immense national importance given the city-state's lack of natural resources and energy-hungry industries. A natural gas pipeline runs from Tsabara to mainland Euclea underneath Montecara from which the state both earns transit fees and obtains fuel for use in power plants and transportation. Petroleum and other fuels arrive by ship for local consumption and re-export.
Conpagnìa Montecarà da eletrìçita el gas, operating under the trade name Comega, is the state-owned company providing natural gas and electricity to all retail utility customers in the country. Private entities are allowed under the law to generate their own power and sell any surplus to Comega under a net metering scheme approved in 2006.
Montecara imports approximately 425,000 barrels of oil per day, or 155.125 million barrels per year. It has no domestic oil sources. It consumes 395,350 barrels per day, for a consumption per capita of 225.70 barrels per day per 1,000 people—the highest rate in the world. The vast majority of Montecara's oil imports are used for transportation, both in the form of cars and trucks and by the ships that use Montecara as a fueling station.
Some efforts have been made to reduce Montecara's fossil-fuel dependency and blunt the worst effects of burning large quantities of fossil fuels. VM is in the process of converting its entire bus fleet away from fossil fuels. It began to replace aging diesel buses with compressed natural gas vehicles in the late 1990s and is now replacing old equipment with all-electric models. The state charges higher registration fees to vehicles with poor fuel efficiency. Diesel fuel sold in Montecara must have a minimum cetane number of 53 and a maximum sulfur content of 10 ppm; this includes the fuel oil burned in Montecara's power plants. Bunker C fuel is banned from use in Montecaran waters. Additionally, all marine fuel must have a maximum sulfur content of 0.1%. This essentially limits marine fuel options to Bunker A or lighter. Leaded gasoline has been banned since 1963.
The Secretariat of Planning and the Environment has authority over energy regulation in Montecara.
Electricity
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Electricity coverage | 100% |
| Continuity of supply | 99.99% |
| Installed capacity (2022) | 1444 MW |
| Share of fossil energy | 72.41% |
| Share of renewable energy | 27.59% |
| Average electricity use (2019) | 4,794 kW·h per capita |
| Services | |
| Share of private sector in generation | 4.3% |
| Competitive supply to large users | No |
| Competitive supply to residential users | No |
| Institutions | |
| Responsibility for transmission | Comega |
Montecara consumes about 8.397 billion kW·h of electricity per year as of 2019. The government claims that the country is in the process of moving away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy, but it badly lags behind schedule in its goal, set in 2000, of achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2025. There are several obstacles to the increased use of renewables: limited land area means that there is little free space to deploy solar panels, the terrain is not generally favorable to onshore wind power, and high land values mean that land-intensive renewable plants are prohibitively expensive to build and maintain. Moreover, the continuous and cost-competitive supply of natural gas from Tsabara means that renewables cannot compete on price. An interconnector cable allows electricity to be exported to and imported from mainland Euclea as needed.
Nuclear power is a highly contentious political issue. Montecara has been a nuclear-free zone since 1985 in response to a proposal by Comega to build a boiling water reactor.
Power plants
The Cocàl regeneration plant burns municipal solid waste (up to 500,000 tonnes per year) to generate electricity and hot water for district heating.
The Siròco Nòvo offshore wind array generates enough electricity to power approximately 300,000 households. It consists of 42 turbines each generating 7.35 MW. The project cost approximately €1.3 billion.
| Name | Image | Type | Capacity (MW) | Commissioned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nùvol power plant |  |
Natural gas (primary) Oil (secondary) |
1050 (3 × 350) | 1982 |
| Siròco Nòvo array |  |
Offshore wind | 309 | 2013 |
| Cocàl regeneration plant |  |
Waste-to-energy | 85 | 1999 |