Barriers to industrial energy efficiency in foundries: a European comparison

According to recent studies, the 20% European improvement in energy efficiency will not be achieved with current trends, even with the adoption of present policies to reduce primary energy use. This is due to the existence of several barriers that hinder the adoption of the energy-efficient technologies and practices. A relevant contribution to improved energy efficiency could come from the industrial sector, due to its relevance on total energy use. This study therefore addresses barriers within the European foundry industry, a major industrial energy user and a strategic player for the European economy. The research investigates the barriers to energy efficiency at 65 foundries, several of them small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), highlighting the critical problems and difficulties by evaluating the socio-technical frameworks against which the barriers have been categorized. Findings show that the greatest perceived barriers are the perception of the lack of resources to be devoted to improving energy efficiency, and the existence of other priorities such as the importance of guaranteeing business continuity. The study has also performed a preliminary analysis of the factors that might affect the perception of barriers. In particular, looking at size, smaller enterprises show a greater perception of the barriers than larger ones, mainly due to several organizational issues, but with effect on behavioural ones, that tend to downgrade energy efficiency to a peripheral issue. The study has also highlighted differences by type of alloy characterizing foundries, taken as proxy of the process complexity. Indeed, enterprises with simpler production processes tend to perceive higher barriers to energy efficiency, showing the need to identify effective means to promote energy efficiency among those enterprises. Moreover, the analysis has pointed out that performing energy audits brings more awareness to the enterprises, highlighting the effective existing difficulties in improving their energy efficiency. This result seems to be relevant since it shows the need for the research to analyze the awareness to energy efficiency in greater depth and develop the most effective policies to increase it at industrial level. Finally when looking at the country in which foundries operate, German enterprises tend to suffer from the barriers far less than the average, whilst a totally different behaviour can be observed for Swedish ones. These preliminary findings open the research to investigate in greater depth the factors leading to a different perception of barriers, and also the domestic policies that have led to those results. Moreover, the study opens to investigate which means, i.e. drivers, might be more effectively exploited at European level to promote industrial energy efficiency.

[1]  Richard B. Howarth,et al.  Market barriers to energy efficiency , 1993 .

[2]  Ronald J. Sutherland,et al.  The economics of energy conservation policy , 1996 .

[3]  Marilyn A Brown Market failures and barriers as a basis for clean energy policies , 2001 .

[4]  Ernst Worrell Advanced technologies and energy efficiency in the iron and steel industry in China , 1995 .

[5]  Ernst Worrell,et al.  Energy intensity in the iron and steel industry: a comparison of physical and economic indicators , 1997 .

[6]  Amulya K. N. Reddy,et al.  Barriers to improvements in energy efficiency , 1991 .

[7]  R. N. Elliott,et al.  Energy Efficiency Programs for Small and Medium Sized Industry , 2001 .

[8]  H. Bernard Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology , 1988 .

[9]  A. Jaffe,et al.  The energy-efficiency gap What does it mean? , 1994 .

[10]  Ernst Worrell,et al.  Productivity benefits of industrial energy efficiency measures , 2003 .

[11]  Albert L. Nichols,et al.  Demand-side management Overcoming market barriers or obscuring real costs? , 1994 .

[12]  Jonathan G. Koomey,et al.  On the economic analysis of problems in energy efficiency: Market barriers, market failures, and policy implications , 1993 .

[13]  Mikael Ottosson,et al.  An energy efficient Swedish pulp and paper industry – exploring barriers to and driving forces for cost-effective energy efficiency investments , 2008 .

[14]  M. Patterson What is energy efficiency?: Concepts, indicators and methodological issues , 1996 .

[15]  R. Howarth,et al.  ‘Normal’ markets, market imperfections and energy efficiency , 1994 .

[16]  J. W. Velthuijsen Determinants of investment in energy conservation , 1995 .

[17]  Steve Sorrell,et al.  The Economics of Energy Efficiency , 2004 .

[18]  E. Lawrence Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the Vehicle Assembly Industry , 2008 .

[19]  Joachim Schleich,et al.  Do energy audits help reduce barriers to energy efficiency? An empirical analysis for Germany , 2004 .

[20]  Joachim Schleich,et al.  Barriers to energy efficiency: A comparison across the German commercial and services sector , 2009 .

[21]  E. Sardianou Barriers to industrial energy efficiency investments in Greece , 2008 .

[22]  Trudie Aberdeen Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. , 2013, The Canadian Journal of Action Research.

[23]  Mikael Ottosson,et al.  Energy management practices in Swedish energy-intensive industries , 2010 .

[24]  Ernst Worrell,et al.  Move over! Stock turnover, retrofit and industrial energy efficiency , 2005 .

[25]  M. Patton Qualitative research & evaluation methods , 2002 .

[26]  Andrea Trianni,et al.  Dealing with barriers to energy efficiency and SMEs: Some empirical evidences , 2012 .

[27]  Edelgard Gruber,et al.  Promoting energy conservation in small and medium-sized companies , 1991 .

[28]  Jonathan G. Koomey,et al.  Technical evidence for assessing the performance of markets affecting energy efficiency , 1994 .

[29]  J. W. Velthuijsen Incentives for investment in energy efficiency: an econometric evaluation and policy implications , 1993 .

[30]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[31]  R. Yin Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[32]  Andrea Trianni,et al.  Quick-E-scan: A methodology for the energy scan of SMEs , 2010 .

[33]  M. Thring World Energy Outlook , 1977 .

[34]  Patrik Thollander,et al.  An interdisciplinary perspective on industrial energy efficiency , 2010 .

[35]  E. Masanet,et al.  Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the U.S. Iron and Steel Industry An ENERGY STAR(R) Guide for Energy and Plant Managers , 2011 .

[36]  Patrik Thollander,et al.  Barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency in the Swedish foundry industry , 2007 .

[37]  Elliot Aronson,et al.  Energy use: the human dimension , 1986 .

[38]  Stephen J. DeCanio,et al.  The efficiency paradox: bureaucratic and organizational barriers to profitable energy-saving investments , 1998 .

[39]  J. Schleich,et al.  Beyond case studies: Barriers to energy efficiency in commerce and the services sector , 2008 .

[40]  Patrik Thollander,et al.  Barriers to and driving forces for energy efficiency in the non-energy intensive manufacturing industry in Sweden , 2006 .

[41]  Jianling Zhang,et al.  Energy saving technologies and productive efficiency in the Chinese iron and steel sector , 2008 .

[42]  P. Nijkamp,et al.  Energy Saving by Firms, Decision-Making, Barriers and Policies , 2001 .

[43]  Stephen J. DeCanio,et al.  Barriers within firms to energy-efficient investments , 1993 .

[44]  Marilyn A Brown,et al.  Closing the efficiency gap: barriers to the efficient use of energy , 1990 .

[45]  E. Worrell,et al.  Barriers to energy efficiency in industrial bottom-up energy demand models—A review , 2011 .

[46]  Aimee McKane,et al.  Making a stronger case for industrial energy efficiency by quantifying non-energy benefits , 2000 .

[47]  W. Golove,et al.  Market barriers to energy efficiency: A critical reappraisal of the rationale for public policies to promote energy efficiency , 1996 .

[48]  Patrik Thollander,et al.  Energy policies for increased industrial energy efficiency: Evaluation of a local energy programme for manufacturing SMEs , 2007 .