IEE-VKA3-SAVE Innovative approaches in industry

Further Information

The industrial sector€s share of EU energy consumption decreased from more than 40% in the early 1980€s to around a third in the 1990€s and to 28% today. The trend is in part due to increasing demand in other sectors and partly due to reduced consumption in the industrial sector. The reduction in the sector has been due to a considerable improvement in energy efficiency and to structural changes. The situation EU industry faces today is quite different from 20 years ago and the attractiveness of investment in energy efficiency is in many cases lower. In the CEECs industrial energy intensity is still high and energy efficiency investments can pay back quickly. However, information about efficient technologies and energy management needs to be spread and financial means identified to fund such investments. In both cases, industry needs to reduce energy consumption to stay competitive and contribute to achieving the Kyoto commitments. EU industry must therefore find innovative technological and non-technological approaches to further reduce energy consumption while CEEC industry can still benefit greatly from more traditional technological solutions.

The Key Action aims to contribute substantially to a continuous reduction in the energy intensity of the industry sector in the next decade. This should improve the competitiveness of EU and CEEC industry. For this objective it will be important to integrate the energy efficiency efforts with other company priorities such as quality of products and services, cost-efficiency, environmental policy (EMAS, IPPC, Kyoto), quality of working environment, etc. and to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency for these other companies priorities.

To achieve this objective, the key action addresses different subjects to get and maintain energy efficiency on the companies€ agenda. It tackles energy efficiency potentials in industry in a way that industrial actors in all countries participating in the EIE programme are addressed. A special focus will be given to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Underlining the Community€s initiaves on Combined Heat and Power (CHP), special attention will also be given to the promotion of polygeneration10. The Target areas to be addressed are:

• Instruments for Energy Management, including energy audits, energy accounting, benchmarking activities, voluntary agreements
• Energy Services in SMEs
• Polygeneration

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Report: Intelligent Energy - Europe (IEE) - SAVE Projects (Energy efficiency)

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