Abstract

Improvements in industrial energy efficiency demonstrated various additional effects beyond pure energy savings and energy cost savings. Observed on many levels, these additional effects, often denoted as non-energy benefits, constitute a diverse collection, for instance, effects related to firms’ production or improvements in the work environment and the external environment. Previous studies showed the potential of including quantified and monetised non-energy benefits in energy efficiency investments. However, there seems to be a lack of methodological overview, including all the steps from observation to monetisation and inclusion in investments. This study systematically reviews the academic literature on non-energy benefits relating to methods for observation, measuring, quantification, and monetisation of the benefits. The most commonly applied research design was a case study approach, in which data on non-energy benefits were collected by conducting interviews. Furthermore, the primary methods used to enable quantification and monetisation of observed non-energy benefits were based on classifications, indexes in relation to the energy savings, or frameworks. Calculation methods, databased tools, classification frameworks, and ranking were applied to evaluate the benefits’ potential in relation to energy efficiency investments. Based on a synthesis of the review findings, this article contributes a novel scheme for improved utilisation of the non-energy benefits of industrial energy efficiency.

Highlights

  • The industrial energy end-use represents a large share of the total energy use world-wide [1]

  • 50% [2], and progress continues to be made in improving industrial energy efficiency [3]; there is still potential for further improvements

  • Even if cost-effective, all of the suggested energy efficiency improvement measures in industry are not realised (e.g., References [4,5]). This gap between the theoretical possibilities and the energy efficiency improvement measures that are implemented is commonly explained by different types of barriers to energy efficiency that hinder the adoption of the improvement measures [4,6,7,8]

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Summary

Introduction

The industrial energy end-use represents a large share (approximately one-third) of the total energy use world-wide [1]. Even if cost-effective, all of the suggested energy efficiency improvement measures in industry are not realised (e.g., References [4,5]). This gap between the theoretical possibilities and the energy efficiency improvement measures that are implemented is commonly explained by different types of barriers to energy efficiency that hinder the adoption of the improvement measures [4,6,7,8]. Studies showed that the type of barriers seems to differ between various geographical regions, industrial sectors, and firms of Energies 2018, 11, 3241; doi:10.3390/en11123241 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies

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