Abstract
Increasing research interests in energy performance contracting (EPC) has resulted in a large number of publications over the past decade. However, very limited attempts have been made to map the global research in this area. To identify the state of the field and trends in EPC research, the VOSviewer software package was used to conduct a series of content analyses and examine global patterns among publications, including the distribution of core authors and institutions, high-frequency categories and keywords, journal and author contributions, highly cited papers, etc. Based on a systematical and deeply qualitative analysis on the 127 identified papers, five mainstream research topics in EPC were summarized, covering implementations of EPC, mechanisms for effective EPC projects, stakeholder behaviors and decisions in EPC projects, energy service company (ESCO) in EPC projects, and risk management in EPC. In addition, six main research gaps in EPC were identified, including lack of effective measurement and verification of energy savings, limited studies on EPC projects in the residential sector, ineffective mechanisms to ensure post-EPC energy-saving, limited research on the dual relationships among EPC project stakeholders, how to improve the energy users’ (EU) attitudes/cognitions toward ESCO/EPC, and lack of effective mechanisms to prevent risks in EPC projects. Furthermore, based on the current EPC research topics and research gaps in EPC, six potential research directions in EPC in future were also explored, which are how to develop effective methods for measuring and verifying energy efficiency?, EPC diffusion issues in the residential sector, effective mechanisms to ensure post-EPC energy-saving, effects of cooperative and competitive relationships between EU and ESCO on the performance of EPC projects, how to improve the EU’s attitudes/cognitions toward ESCO/EPC, and how to deal with risks in EPC projects. The outcomes would be useful for understanding the latest development of global EPC research and guiding future research in the subject.
Highlights
In recent years, energy performance contracting (EPC) has attracted attention from global scholars regarding its market trends and acceptance [1,2,3,4]
Based on the growing concerns on EPC, this paper provided a holistic view on the EPC research over the past decade
The analysis was mainly based on the results from a bibliometric analysis on 127 EPC-related papers published from 2008 to 2018
Summary
Energy performance contracting (EPC) has attracted attention from global scholars regarding its market trends and acceptance [1,2,3,4]. Li [5] made use of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) fuzzy evaluation method to evaluate the financing problems in China’s EPC projects; Lee and Dzeng [6] analyzed the whole market development of EPC in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Through a two-round Delphi study, Satu and Kirsi [7] carried out qualitative research in exploring the business model of EPC; Xu et al [8] explored the main factors affecting the EPC in building energy efficiency retrofit in China’s hotel industry through an analytic network process (ANP) model. Based on the questionnaire survey and interviews, Aasen et al [9] analyzed critical factors affecting EPC and barriers to energy savings in the municipal sector in Norway; Polzin et al [10] empirically studied EPC barriers in the retrofitting projects in German municipalities. It is essential to systematically examine the EPC literature, which can provide an in-depth understanding on the latest research development on the EPC subject, and give a useful guide to inspire future research to improve EPC practice
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