The energy efficiency gap and barriers to investments:Evidence from a firm survey in The Netherlands
This study investigates the energy efficiency (EE) gap, referring to private agents who are not making seemingly profitable investments to reduce energy use. We deploy a questionnaire among firms in The Netherlands in which we ask them about investment behavior and barriers to investing in EE. A set of 16 barriers is constructed based on the literature. We find that most firms (70%) have made EE investments in the past five years, and that the median firm has saved 10% of its energy use. The remaining profitable EE investment opportunities still leave room for another 15% of energy savings at... Mehr ...
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Dokumenttyp: | Artikel |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2024 |
Reihe/Periodikum: | Bremer , L , den Nijs , S & de Groot , H L F 2024 , ' The energy efficiency gap and barriers to investments : Evidence from a firm survey in The Netherlands ' , Energy Economics , vol. 133 , 107498 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107498 |
Schlagwörter: | Energy efficiency gap / Energy efficiency investments / Energy policy / Energy savings / Investment barriers / Policy uncertainty |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Permalink: | https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27622992 |
Datenquelle: | BASE; Originalkatalog |
Powered By: | BASE |
Link(s) : | https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/e9ade764-18b3-4dc2-8207-bf9872498ea8 |
This study investigates the energy efficiency (EE) gap, referring to private agents who are not making seemingly profitable investments to reduce energy use. We deploy a questionnaire among firms in The Netherlands in which we ask them about investment behavior and barriers to investing in EE. A set of 16 barriers is constructed based on the literature. We find that most firms (70%) have made EE investments in the past five years, and that the median firm has saved 10% of its energy use. The remaining profitable EE investment opportunities still leave room for another 15% of energy savings at the median firm. We find that uncertainty about future policies ranks as the leading barrier to EE investments, followed by lock-ins in current equipment, and energy price uncertainty. Especially energy-intensive firms indicate the importance of policy uncertainty. Additionally, we find that a firm's network can be an important channel for obtaining EE investment knowledge.