• Energy Research

Increased energy efficiency represents a crucial opportunity for European industrial sustainability, but several barriers still need to be tackled, as recent policies have not often succeeded as expected. Thus, it is crucial to understand the existing mismatches between the perception of enterprises, and what the major actors promoting energy efficiency believe enterprises suffer from and need to within the decisionmaking process of investing in energy efficiency. To do so, we have performed an exploratory investigation analyzing a set of Dutch manufacturing enterprises. The study involved other actors, namely the Dutch National Energy agency, the local government, as well as industrial associations to map the views of stakeholders in the decision making cycle. Results show that even a general common understanding of the barriers is disputed, as the interviewees exclusively agree on the primary role of economic barriers. Large mismatches appear when considering how single barriers affect the decisionmaking process and which drivers - and actors promoting them - need to be addressed. Therefore, much greater attention should be paid to such issues, extending policies from industrial final users to all companies supplying enterprises with capital, technologies, services, information, and competences.

AbstractUsing innovation such as new technologies, R&D, or new processes can support Energy Efficiency (EE). Building on this idea, this paper seeks to explore whether a novel approach to foster EE in Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) includes improving the overall innovation degree through the adoption of (OI) practices. To do this, a multiple case study with ten firms in Northern Italy operating in energy-intensive industries was conducted. The paper analyses the firm's specific energy consumption, the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, the perception of barriers to EE, and their relation with the firms’ internal innovation and OI activities. Main results show that more innovative firms, in terms of internal and inbound innovation, have better EE indicators albeit a lower adoption of energy-efficient technologies or the challenge of economic and technology barriers. Equally, medium-large firms are more innovative and have better EE performance. This study offers preliminary evidence of a relation between certain innovation practices and the rise of EE in SMEs.

Abstract Energy efficiency measures in electric motor systems are scarcely implemented and previous literature has largely overlooked the characterizing factors responsible for their adoption in industrial operations. The present study, after a comprehensive literature review, aims at supporting research by offering a framework for the identification of the factors that should be assessed when considering the adoption of electric motor systems' energy efficiency measures. The proposed factors are clustered in ten categories, namely: contextual factors, compatibility, economy, energy savings, production-related factors, operations-related factors, synergies, complexity, personnel and additional technical factors. After a preliminary empirical validation, the proposed framework has been applied in a selected sample of manufacturing firms. Findings show that factors more closely related to the firm's production and operations result most critical for the adoption of energy efficiency measures. However, the adoption process is also deeply influenced by their complexity or compatibility to the specific context application, therefore calling for an exhaustive assessment. The adoption of the framework would have reversed some firm's decisions over the initial uptake of energy efficiency measures that proved to have critical issues for their implementation. Therefore, the proposed framework provides additional support and further value to decision-makers especially for non-energy intensive firms, where the impact on non-energy production resources becomes more important, and small-medium enterprises usually present greater difficulties for a holistic assessment of energy efficiency measures. The study concludes with main implications for research and policy-making from the present study as well as suggestions for future research.

Industrial activities are responsible for a significant share of both global delivered energy demand and CO2 emissions. Hence, a widespread adoption of energy-efficient technologies and practices represents a crucial means for sustainable production. Adopting a novel framework of drivers for energy efficiency describing the effect of drivers on barriers in the decision-making process steps and able to account for the nature of drivers and the stakeholders responsible for their promotion, we have performed an exploratory investigation into 61 manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Italy. Our findings have highlighted the importance of information and economic drivers, showing the need for enterprises to be supported not only by public institutions but also by external stakeholders involved in the supply of energy-efficient technologies and practices such as industrial associations and groupings, as well as service and technology suppliers. Moreover, our study has highlighted an almost equal relevance of both internal and external drivers. According to our findings, the increase of awareness—generating the interest to energy issues and stimulated both by external and internal stakeholders—as well as financial issues have emerged as the most critical in the decision-making process to adopt an energy-efficient measure. A preliminary comprehension of the mechanisms relating drivers to barriers in the decision-making process brought additional value to the study, highlighting the most effective and specific means to overcome the existing barriers. We have also explored the effect of several firm characteristics, such as firm size and energy intensity offering suggestions for industrial decision-makers as well as policy-makers.

Abstract Industrial energy efficiency has been widely recognized as a major contributor to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and improvement of industrial competitiveness. Nevertheless, a broad set of studies have pointed out the existence of barriers limiting the adoption of promising Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs). Recently, scholars have shown the relevance of the so-called "non-energy benefits" (NEBs) coming from the adoption of EEMs for overcoming those barriers. Still, the existence of such benefits has been pointed out from specific studies and manuals for practitioners, but an overall framework describing them in terms of savings and benefits, as well as technical and management implications, is missing yet. Moreover, a considerable part of the scholars and of the practitioners just focuses on the identification and definition of the positive benefits deriving from these measures after they have been completely adopted, thus neglecting to describe the full set of both positive and negative effects occurring also during the implementation phase. Thus, starting from a literature review of scientific as well as practitioners' studies, we have proposed a novel framework and characterization of the relevant items to be considered by an industrial decision-maker when deciding whether to adopt an EEM considering both the implementation and service phases. Hence, by taking this perspective, we have tested and validated the framework and the characterization in a two-step process: firstly, considering a set of EEMs well diffused and adopted in industry; secondly, investigating benefits and losses in ad-hoc selected manufacturing companies. Finally, considerations and implications are drawn from the preliminary validation and suggestion for further research are proposed, for both industrial decision-making as well as policy-making purposes.

Abstract This paper introduces the Quick-E-Scan methodology that has been developed to achieve the operational energy efficiency of small & medium enterprises (SMEs), characterized by being scarcely disposed to long energy audits and by a limited budget for energy management programs. On one side, through dividing the firm into functional units – either service (lighting, HVAC, etc.) or production units – the main consuming areas are identified and a criticality index is defined; conversely, an enhancement index highlights the gap of each unit towards the best available techniques (BATs) in energy management programs. Finally, a priority index, created with the junction of the two indexes, points out the most profitable areas in which energy saving measures should be implemented. The methodology, particularly quick and simple, has been successfully tested in 38 SMEs in Northern Italy.

Abstract Electric motor systems (EMS) play the lion’s share in industrial power consumption. Many opportunities for energy efficiency - most of which apparently cost-effective - can be found, but often decision-makers do not take them as the detail for a specific decision can be too high. In many cases, information regarding the characteristics of such energy efficiency measures (EEMs) is quite vague. For this reason, in the present study we offer a thorough overview of EEMs for EMS, basing on an extensive review of scientific and industrial literature, aimed at offering specific detail over single EEMs and thus support to industrial decision-makers. EEMs are presented according to four main groups, as follows: hardware, motor system drives, management of motors in the plant, and power quality. The new categorization could be helpful to support research for the development of a novel framework to represent the main factors the affect the adoption of EMS for EMS.