Impact review of past UK public industrial energy efficiency RD&D programmes

Governments face pressures to improve national energy efficiency that are comparable to those caused by the energy crises of the 1970s. In UK industry a public programme of research, development and demonstration (RD&D) emanated from the crises and persisted until the end of the 1980s. The main element of this strategy was a full-scale commercial demonstration scheme: the Energy Efficiency Demonstration Scheme (EEDS). This work presents a bottom-up/top-down data analysis to examine the influence of the scheme on the overall energy demand trend of the UK industrial sector as separated from structural and output effects. It was concluded that earlier deployment of efficiency technologies as a result of their demonstration under the scheme may have provided a quarter of the observed energy demand reduction over the period 1979–1989. However, it should be noted that it is inherently difficult to accurately determine the extent to which earlier technology investments occur as a result of supported demonstration. The scheme’s mechanism and replacement was also discussed in order to derive lessons. Policy and economic implications for the UK were examined.

[1]  Amanda M. Thomson,et al.  Projections of emissions and removals from the LULUCF sector to 2050. Contract report for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) , 2011 .

[2]  R. K. Cattell,et al.  Energy and Structural Change in the United Kingdom and Western Europe , 1987 .

[3]  Jan Bentzen,et al.  Estimating the rebound effect in US manufacturing energy consumption , 2004 .

[4]  S. Sorrell.  Jevons’ Paradox revisited: The evidence for backfire from improved energy efficiency , 2009 .

[5]  B. W. Ang,et al.  A survey of index decomposition analysis in energy and environmental studies , 2000 .

[6]  Lianyun Wang,et al.  Experimental analysis of an adsorption refrigerator with mass and heat-pipe heat recovery process , 2012 .

[7]  Pornpote Piumsomboon,et al.  Isopropanol–acetone–hydrogen chemical heat pump: A demonstration unit , 2007 .

[8]  Joseph M. Roop,et al.  Measuring industrial energy intensity: practical issues and problems , 1997 .

[9]  B. W. Ang,et al.  Factors shaping aggregate energy intensity trend for industry: Energy intensity versus product mix , 2007 .

[10]  Fridtjof Unander.  Decomposition of manufacturing energy-use in IEA countries: How do recent developments compare with historical long-term trends? , 2007 .

[11]  C. Wene.  Experience Curves for Energy Technology Policy , 2000 .

[12]  Peter Mulder.  The Economics of Technology Diffusion and Energy Efficiency , 2005 .

[13]  L. Cárdenas,et al.  UK greenhouse gas inventory 1990 to 2006: annual report for submission under the Framework Convention on Climate Change , 2006 .

[14]  Martijn G. Rietbergen,et al.  The Effectiveness of Policy Instruments for Energy-Efficiency Improvement in Firms: The Dutch Experience , 2004 .

[15]  W. B. Davis,et al.  Comparison of six decomposition methods: application to aggregate energy intensity for manufacturing in 10 OECD countries , 1997 .

[16]  L. Murphy,et al.  Bridging the Valley of Death: Transitioning from Public to Private Sector Financing , 2003 .

[17]  R. K. Cattell,et al.  Structural change and energy efficiency in industry , 1983 .

[18]  Geoffrey P. Hammond,et al.  Decomposition analysis of energy-related carbon emissions from UK manufacturing , 2012 .

[19]  Steinar Strøm,et al.  Manufacturing energy use in eight OECD countries: Decomposing the impacts of changes in output, industry structure and energy intensity , 1991 .