Belgium consumes 200 billion kWh of gas every year. A volume that places us among the big consumers in Europe. But who consumes this gas: industries? Households ? Where is he from ?
In Belgium, more than 50% of gas is consumed in households. Nearly 25% is used by industry, mainly for high temperature heating processes. The remaining 22% is used by gas-fired power plants.
“The trend in Belgium is towards an increase in our consumption”says Francesco Contino, professor specializing in energy at UCLouvain. “If I take the figures from 30 years ago, consumption has doubled.”
Belgium does not produce gas. It gets its supplies mainly from the Netherlands and Norway, but also from the United Kingdom, Qatar, Russia and the United States. On the other hand, our country is what is called a hub.
“A lot of gas passes through Belgium. For example, gas that comes from the Netherlands and goes to France. We also have a port in Zeebrugge which imports gas in liquefied form via ships, which allows us to have gas for our own consumption and to redistribute it”ajoute Francesco Contino.
Belgians consume in their homes as much as our German neighbours, but much more than our French neighbours.
“In Belgium, we have a relatively old building, the 2nd most dilapidated building in Europe, which generates the 4th highest consumption per m² of residential buildings in Europe”, specifies Stéphane Bocqué, spokesperson for FEBEG (the Belgian Federation of Electricity and Gas Companies).
In total, Belgians therefore consume 200 billion kWh of gas each year.