Focus on industrial energy efficiency

After slumbering for many years, it is back, moving up the policy agenda.  Improvement of energy efficiency in industry was a focus of attention after the oil crises of the 1970s because it could be done quickly.  There was a lot of progress, with a combination of monitoring (actually counting energy consumption in a factory), financial incentives, awareness and support for energy managers.  Some countries set up very good voluntary programmes that continue today, including Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

But because it was considered in industry’s self-interest to undertake energy efficiency measures, governments tended to favour other sectors – with the exception of non-energy intensive companies and small and medium-sized enterprises.

When the European Union agreed to an Emissions Trading System European policy makers felt that emissions trading would be sufficient to achieve emissions reductions and improve energy efficiency.  It wasn’t.

For one thing, improved industrial energy efficiency brings many parallel benefits – from improved competitiveness and lower costs to improved product quality – that would not expected from EU-ETS.

But there is a change underway. The eceee has, in the past, had one panel on industrial energy efficiency at its bi-annual summer study.  Because interest has grown over the years, now the eceee has decided to hold a separate summer study dedicated to industrial energy efficiency, inaugurating in Arnhem, the Netherlands, 11–14 September 2012.  For more information, visit the eceee website. The 2011 summer study included papers on voluntary agreements, energy audits, industrial waste heat, SMEs, China, Latvia, Poland, various promising and innovative technologies and many more.  Five of the papers were on Sweden and four on Germany – two countries that know the importance of improving competitiveness of their industry.

In Brussels itself we witness the growth of the new business2policy platform, Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes (EEIP). EEIP operates as a neutral, membership free platform bringing together policy and business by tackling energy efficiency in a new, systemic way rather than focusing on a specific technology or a sector. With more than 8000 community members within 9 month, EEIP is able to leverage the broad energy efficiency discussion identifying most relevant areas and conveying the key messages to policy and business alike. The EEIP Finance panel on the 24th of April at the Hannover Fair, following a high-level roundtable in November 2011, is a typical example for EEIP´s communication reach. The Hannover Fair will also see the launch of an EEIP’s Process work stream, covering topics ranging from board level management control over energy management systems down to Ecodesign implications. A true reflection of the systemic nature of industrial energy efficiency. All this, together with the 3rd key theme, energy recovery, will be presented and discussed during the 2 day EEIP congress in Cologne on the 5-6 June.

And that´s not all. Thomas Industrial Media, the biggest publishing house for industrial media in Europe has teamed up with EEIP to jointly publish the new magazine “Energy Efficiency: Business & Industry”. Keep an eye out for the first edition, published in April. Subscriptions are free.

The considerable activity in industrial energy efficiency will be the subject of future EiD posts because there is even more going on.  The important point is that industrial energy efficiency is on the agenda, where it belongs and where it needs even greater visibility.