International study on energy end-use data among industrial SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and energy end-use efficiency improvement opportunities

Abstract

The industrial sector is important to study in terms of improved energy efficiency, being one of the major energy-using sectors and responsible for a major share of CO2 emissions.The energy end-use (EEU) in the industrial sector is complex in general as processes are intertwined and interrelated. Moreover, bottom-up data of EEU on an aggregated level is scarce.Data for total energy supply like electricity, oil, coal, and natural gas exists but bottom-up data of what processes these energy carriers are used in, and moreover, where the major potential for implementation of energy efficiency measures (EEMs) exists, is less prevalent.This holds in particular for industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This makes policy formulation and design for industry a great challenge. Knowledge on where and how energy is used, as well as where opportunities for improvement exist, may provide good support for developing the most effective policies. Therefore, the aim of this study has been to present and compare available bottom-up energy data for industrial SMEs in four countries, namely Belgium, Italy, Japan and Sweden. Results show that the existence and quality of bottom-up EEU data differs largely between the countries and the development of a general taxonomy of structuring EEU data as well as EEMs is needed. Without the development of such a general taxonomy, the deployment level of EEMs and carbon dioxide emission reductions is unlikely to ever reach its full potential as knowledge is missing on how large the potential is, in which processes the major potential is found, how far industry has reached in terms of deployment levels, and in which areas future energy policies are needed. In conclusion, this paper of EEU and EEM in industrial SMEs addresses the high importance of future research in creating a harmonized data categorization, as this will greatly support the transition towards sustainable industrial energy systems.

Ex-post impact and process evaluation of the Swedish energy audit policy programme for small and medium-sized enterprises

“…The evaluation of the Swedish regional and German national energy audit programs has shown that the majority of the EEMs were proposed for generic (support) processes related to space heating, ventilation, compressed air systems, etc. For SMEs, support processes present larger aggregated energy use than production processes (Thollander et al, 2015a).…”

“…Another essential issue highlighted in the review is insufficiency of standardized approaches for industrial energy policy evaluation, which can play a crucial role for the perceived success of industrial policies (Harris et al, 2000). Also, homogeneous categorization of energy data for evaluation of industrial EEU policies is a further important aspect which would enable comparison of energy policies among different countries (Thollander et al, 2015a).…”

“…Also, in large and energy-intensive industry, the absorptive capacity in terms of energy engineering consultants are higher, thus leading to a theoretically higher relative energy efficiency potential among SMEs. The minimum estimated potential for improved energy efficiency among SMEs is 20% and even more (EC, 2006;Thollander et al, 2015a).…”

Quantifying the extended energy efficiency gap-evidence from Swedish electricity-intensive industries

“…Price (2005), who reviewed 23 industrial voluntary agreement programs from 18 countries, and Rezessy and Bertoldi (2011), who reviewed EU voluntary agreement programs from 11 countries, these studies do not present in-depth findings on the implementation from various process categories. Moreover, if data did exist, comparisons would have been challenging as no uniform way of categorizing energy end-use measures resulting from industrial energy programs exists (Thollander et al, 2015).…”

Main Results of an Energy Audit in a Milk Processing Industry in Taquara, Southern Brazil

“…Another work [15] shows a study based on data collected in eight industrial buildings of automobile manufacturers in Italy and the assembly of a model to evaluate the impact of different actions which aimed at reducing energy consumption. On a different path, the work led by Thollander [16] dustry has the seventh largest potential, in absolute terms, for the conservation of thermal energy and total energy consumption and the third largest potential, in absolute terms, for the conservation of electricity [17]. The food and beverage sector inserted in the dairy industry has great potential for energy savings in various uses.…”