Are you interested in starting an energy efficiency project in your facilities but lack the resources to implement it? There’s no need to ditch the idea and lose out on the benefits that go with it. Have you ever heard of Energy Performance Contracting as a financing tool?
You probably know being energy efficient means benefits to your bottom line, the environment and your corporate image, among others. On the other hand, you may also understand that many of these actions require a significant cash-flow to get them up and running. What you are possibly missing out on is the existence of a financing tool available for these types of projects that helps you avoid risk and investment.
Energy Performance Contracting
This promising financing tool is called Energy Performance Contracting or EPC. It consists of paying for the investment in energy saving measures by means of the cost savings achieved in the project. These cost savings are guaranteed by an Energy Service Company (ESCO) which implements and finances the systems. While EPC is widely used in the United States, in the European Union it is still in its early stages.
The slow take up of EPC in the EU is due to barriers such as:
- Lack of trust
- Shortage of systematic information
- Procurement procedures
- Insufficient know-how
- Lack of market facilitators
EESI Project: the key to get the financing with Energy Performance Contracting
To overcome these barriers, the European Energy Service Initiative 2020 project (EESI 2020) was introduced in 2013. The project’s aim is to promote the use of this helpful mechanism in nine European cities and metropolitan areas. The cities involved are Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Graz, Prague, Oslo, Sofia and Zagreb. Lead by the Berlin Energy Agency, the project features participants such as the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN).
The EESI 2020 project is co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Union. It is one of the measures taken by the European Commission towards achieving the 20% energy saving target by 2020. The idea is to foster the implementation of energy efficiency measures by increasing the awareness about this financing method. To achieve this, experienced EPC project facilitators will be sharing their knowledge on the development of these projects with new market players. The aim is to increase the amount of experts working on the topic and multiply the EPC concept throughout these regions.
Reports, guidelines, training material and stakeholder interviews are available at the EESI 2020 website. Additionally, best practices of existing projects are made available in a uniform format in a ‘best practice’ section. This database is useful both to facilitators and final customers to find references on high quality EPC.
The EESI 2020 project is addressed to:
- Representatives from managing authorities,
- Governments,
- Large building owners,
- Consultants,
- Energy agencies,
- Research institutes,
- Universities,
- Associations
Having presented this EESI 2020 project, we would like to invite you to access all the practical and technical information about EPC projects in its webpage. Your organisation could find this financing tool useful to achieve those much-needed energy costs savings. If your organisation is in one of the project’s cities, you will find useful information on the facilitators, how to use an EPC in your project, and much more.
