Abstract
Preliminary investigations into the energy efficiency of manufacturing firms operating in South Africa have shown that no previous study of the barriers to energy efficiency has been conducted. This paper sets out to investigate whether there is an energy efficiency gap in medium to large manufacturing firms operating in the eThekwini municipal area. It goes on further to analyse the barriers to energy efficiency in such firms. These barriers are analysed by firm characteristics and across manufacturing sectors. The findings of this research indicate that more can be done to improve the energy efficiency profile within South African manufacturing subsectors. Policy-makers should take these findings into consideration when drafting new policy on energy efficiency.
Highlights
Energy sustainability has become a topic of discussion among world leaders and political parties, and nations worldwide are beginning to realise the impact of this concept on social, environmental, and economic indicators [1]
This paper will attempt to account for this paradox through an investigation of barriers to EE in medium to large manufacturing firms (MLMFs) operating in the eThekwini municipal area (EMA)
The descriptive statistics present a profile of the EE performance of MLMFs in the EMA
Summary
Energy sustainability has become a topic of discussion among world leaders and political parties, and nations worldwide are beginning to realise the impact of this concept on social, environmental, and economic indicators [1]. The industrial sector has been shown to have a high-energy-intensity character [3] From this it is clear that some industrial firms do not readily adopt EE technologies to help reduce their intensity profile. A vast literature on the phenomenon known as ‘the efficiency gap’ or ‘the energy paradox’ has been published to date, as discussed in DeCanio [4], Weber [5], DeCanio [6], and DeCanio and Watkins [7] This concept can be argued as follows: while it is well known that, from a technical point of view, EE improvement programmes are economically profitable, it is not well understood why such technical solutions are not exhaustively exploited by firms. Any EE policy mechanism needs to be specific to the target sector and characteristics of the firms being considered
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