Energy consumption is one of the main costs faced by households, both financially and environmentally. This article analyses the energy consumption of Spanish households and the cost of installing solar panels in order to determine the potential of this form of energy production on a household level. The results show that households with a larger number of members have a higher total consumption but a lower consumption per person. The composition of the household is therefore a key determinant of the potential savings from solar panels. This alternative is financially viable, as the unit price paid for energy in these households is between €0.28 and €0.29 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while the average cost per kWh obtained from the panels is between €0.15 and €0.21. However, the current public subsidies for the installation of solar panels in Spain are inaccessible to 68% of the country’s households, and there are difficulties in the distribution of energy in neighbouring communities. In other words, although in financial terms home PV self-consumption is a financially viable option, the inability to obtaining subsidies makes the initial investment a major barrier for many households.

This paper investigates the nature of the effects of electric power consumption on economic growth for 41 high-income countries. It introduces a heterodox growth model, which integrates economic capabilities and economic structure into the energy consumption–economic growth nexus. The study leverages on the dynamic pooled ordinary least squares, dynamic fixed effects, system-GMM, the panel autoregressive distributed lag, and the generalized quantile regression estimations as estimation techniques. Empirical findings suggest that electric power consumption, human capital, and technological progress are positively associated with a higher rate of economic growth. Moreover, the study revealed that an increase in the level of capabilities of an economy can promote new incentives for employed people to raise their skills, and thus increases economic progress. In that sense, it is worth important to argue that the changes in the income level of any country may be reflected by the changes in the level of consumption of electric power along with the changes in the level of capabilities of an economy.

Global climate changes and the need for transition to a low-carbon future have emerged as one of the most critical challenges of contemporary society, and decisions made by homeowners about major energy relevant renovations are essential as part of reaching climate goals. However, the installation of energy efficiency measures is still not widespread and needs to be stimulated to meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. This article provides insights into renovation processes by Danish homeowners currently being in the process of renovating their homes. Data were collected through 19 explorative qualitative interviews in the informants’ homes. By using practice theory as an analytical framework, we seek to broaden the traditional policy approach of rational actors by contributing with a broader and more context-rich understanding of homeowners’ renovation processes and how, or not, energy renovation is part of such processes. The results show that home renovation is a dynamic process that is not always carefully planned or intended, but rather evolves as technologies, know-how, and meanings develop and change. Specific challenges for energy renovation are identified concerning its perceived benefits, complexities, policy conditions, and associated meanings. The challenges of energy renovation are researched in context of other types of home renovations that are often implemented at the same time, but which differ fundamentally. Based on systematic evidence of the challenges and implementation context of energy renovation, recommendations for initiatives relevant to stimulate in policy and marketing are provided.

This paper presents a newly developed Russian energy efficiency and energy-related GHG emission accounting system (EE-EGHG-AS) and discusses the results obtained. This system is designed to account for the energy efficiency progress as achieved in 12 sectors and 80 economic activities and to capture the impacts of 7 factors with a focus on the technological factor. It helped to reveal that in 2015–2021, the technological factor contributed to the 4.3% decline in GDP energy intensity (whereas the traditionally estimated GDP energy intensity was 3.6% up). If non-energy use is excluded, then energy intensity was 2.8% down, which brings the 2021 energy intensity level 15% below the traditional estimates. For some activities, the EE-EGHG-AS has demonstrated a limited ability to adequately assess the contribution made by the technological factor to crashing into, and recovering from, COVID-19-like crises, because the statistically reported data is scarce. With little progress towards energy efficiency improvements Russia is still one of the most energy-intensive countries in the world. Little progress in energy efficiency over the recent years has created the “super-coupling” effect for Russia in 2020–2021 and it is extremely challenging to attain the country’s carbon neutrality target by 2060.

Industrial process heat decarbonization through electrification could contribute significantly to climate change mitigation efforts. In the US industry, thermal processes accounted for more than two-thirds of the total final energy demand in 2021. Cross-cutting electrification technologies like industrial heat pumps are suitable for the process heat supply to several industrial unit operations in a sustainable way while also improving overall energy efficiency. This study employs a bottom-up approach to investigate the techno-enviro-economic potentials of deploying high-temperature and steam-generating heat pumps in US textile, pulp and paper, and automotive sectors in different timeframes. The results show that the annual technical potential energy and CO2 savings by electrifying heat supply are 310 PJ (or 36% of the projected energy demand) and 28 MtCO2 (or 71% of the projected CO2 emissions) in 2050 respectively, however, these incur additional costs in each sector (ranging between 5 and 18 $/GJ). The required heating capacity of industrial heat pumps is estimated at 15 GW, which translates roughly into a market of over 6000 heat pump units and an investment volume of $7 billion in the studied processes. Although there may be individual cost-effective opportunities for electrifying heat supply in specific industrial sites, the overall costs are estimated to be high in the three industrial sectors due to the large disparity between electricity and natural gas prices and low heat source temperatures. To overcome the identified techno-economic barriers, comprehensive action plans for different stakeholders are also given. This study provides novel insights that should inform policymakers’ and executives’ decisions about the electrification of the current and future US industrial heat supply in relevant industrial sectors.

Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to combat climate change and global warming. Financial inclusion can facilitate the financing of energy-efficient technologies and environmental awareness programs. In this context, this study aims to investigate the asymmetric and causal relationships between financial inclusion and energy efficiency in the ten most energy-efficient countries over the period 1980q1–2018q4. For this purpose, the quantile-on-quantile approach, quantile regression, and quantile Granger causality test are applied in this study. The findings demonstrate that financial inclusion has a negative impact on energy intensity across all quantiles. Energy intensity also reduces financial inclusion. However, this effect is attenuated at higher quantiles. Moreover, all countries have bidirectional causality between financial inclusion and energy efficiency. Given these results, the study suggests that financial inclusion is an important determinant of energy efficiency and that financial conditions should be considered when implementing energy policies. This study will be conducive for policymakers to implement financial development strategies for investing in clean technologies to increase energy efficiency and solve environmental issues.

Chinese coal enterprises are facing severe challenges due to low-carbon economy requirements and capacity reductions. This paper adopts a dynamic SBM model to compare the mining efficiency of each mining area of a coal company in China. We use total excavation footage, number of working platforms, and machine quantities as input indicators, and coal sales and CO2 emissions as output indicators. It was found that (1) both high efficiency and low efficiency mines maintained their production status each year and did not actively improve over time; (2) energy consumption was the primary indicator affecting comprehensive mining efficiency; and (3) while changes in the market environment did not have any significant impact on coal mining efficiency, coal mine characteristics were found to have some correlations with efficiency.

European Union (EU) legislation is increasingly embracing the energy efficiency first (EE1st) principle. This principle seeks to prioritise energy efficiency measures whenever these involve lower costs to society than generators, networks and other energy supply options while achieving the same outcomes. This study contributes to the quantitative evidence on the relevance of EE1st by modelling the impact of moderate to ambitious end-use energy efficiency measures on energy supply and the associated system cost under a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions constraint by 2050. These measures focus on the EU building sector and include both building retrofits (e.g. wall insulation) and efficient products (e.g. lighting). The results indicate that implementing more ambitious energy saving measures reduces the total electricity, heat and hydrogen capacities needed to achieve the net-zero target. Reducing energy use in buildings by at least 21% between 2020 and 2050 is essential to avoid excessive energy supply costs. This requires actions that go well beyond business-as-usual trends. Reductions of around 30% could be justified on the grounds of (i) high fossil fuel prices and (ii) multiple impacts (e.g. health benefits). Overall, the outcomes provide reasonable justification for the EE1st principle. To put the principle into practice, policy actions such as doubling building renovation rates and setting higher energy efficiency targets are key.

This research aims to study the factors influencing energy saving intention and behavior of households. This study applied the behavioral reasoning theory (BRT), adapting it by integrating household norm as a factor in the global motives (including attitude towards energy saving, perceived behavioral control (PBC) and household norm). A mixed-mode survey (online and paper-based) was implemented to collect data from households, and partial least square structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results show that the BRT framework is useful to enhance the predicting capability for energy saving intention and behavior. Reasons-for (financial and environmental benefits) played a strong significant role affecting global motives, and energy saving intention, while reasons-against (energy saving cost), caused negligible impacts. This research also authenticated the significant effects of the global motives on energy saving intention. Another significant result was that household norm had strong impacts on both energy saving intention and behavior and contributed considerably to energy saving behavior prediction.

Most of empirical studies assume convex production technology to analyze productivity growth at the aggregate level. However, convexity assumption implies benchmarking against production plans that are not empirically observed. Unlike previous studies, we adopt a non-convex approach based on observed input–output combinations, which requires minimal assumptions in terms of production technology. Incorporating energy and carbon emissions into the production function, this paper investigates green growth and its driving forces among 39 European countries over 1991–2019. A by-production technology is applied alongside the environmental Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHM) productivity indicator and directional distance functions. The results show that the production technology has been expanding (i.e., technical progress), whereas scale inefficiency led to the negative green total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Europe. At the group level, green TFP in OECD countries tends to increase, whereas a sharp decline is observed for non-OECD countries. Furthermore, we note that human capital, R&D intensity, energy consumption structure, and urbanization level all have significant positive impacts on green TFP growth in Europe, especially for non-OECD countries. The corresponding policy implications are derived to promote regional cooperation and technology sharing.

The adoption of energy-efficient appliances has been studied in many developed countries in recent years. However, it is unclear how these findings translate to developing countries. We conduct a discrete choice experiment with a broad sample of potential air conditioner (AC) purchasers in Metropolitan Manila, where the percentage of AC owners has increased concomitant with the economic growth in the Philippines. We find that consumers have the strongest preferences for ACs made by domestic manufacturers with smart functions that enable consumers to save electricity more easily. In addition, we examine the information on eco labels that encourage consumers to choose an energy-efficient AC, including the default option of an energy efficiency ratio, estimated cost per hour or an energy star rating. The estimation results indicate that the probability of an energy-efficient AC being chosen could be increased by approximately 15 percentage points if the eco label uses an energy star rating rather than an energy efficiency ratio. These results have important implications for climate and energy policies for developing countries.

In the past few years, small household devices have appeared on the market for ultrasonic cleaning of textiles. In this study, the focus is on devices that can be immersed in a water tub for cleaning textiles by ultrasonics. These new devices were tested to see if they presented an opportunity to save electrical energy. Cleanliness levels were judged by comparison to conventional programs in household washing machines. The two devices tested demonstrated a higher effect than soaking without ultrasonics but a lower effect than any wash program. To get a better overview of what ultrasonics were capable of, additional experiments were conducted, i.e., in an ultrasonic bath for cleaning metal parts. It had a higher ultrasonic intensity and showed that there was still potential to get a higher cleaning effect for textiles at a low energy consumption level. It is concluded that, as far as household washing is concerned, ultrasonic treatments provide opportunities for the reduction of energy demand in low-temperature washing programs with a small textile load.

The primary purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate whether low-carbon energy transition has achieved preliminary progress in facilitating China’s green evolution of economy following the provincial dataset. Besides, how improved energy efficiency moderates the influence of energy transition on green growth and the mediation effects are also quantitatively explored. The primary findings insist that low carbonization energy transition is positively associated with green growth, a finding detected by a series of sensitivity checks. Besides, the reciprocal actions between adjusting energy structure and raising energy productivity can effectively strengthen their roles in promoting green growth. In addition, boosting clean energy transition plays an indirect role in green growth by enhancing energy productivity while directly facilitating green growth. Following the three outcomes, this study puts forward some policy implications on enhancing governmental supervision, promoting clean energy evolution, and upgrading ecological protection technologies.

This paper investigates the factors that affect the use/purchase of energy-saving electrical appliances in Sri Lankan households. A theoretical model was developed utilizing the technology acceptance model and incorporating perceived affordability. Twelve hypotheses were tested based on data obtained from a survey conducted in the Sri Lankan Kalutara district for a sample of 384 residences. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS 26 and Smart PLS 3 software. The results show that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have significant relationships with attitude and behavioral intention of purchasing energy-saving appliances. The moderating effects of perceived behavioral control to the relationships between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are not significant. Also, there was no significant moderating effects of affordability on the relationship between behavioral intention and attitude. The main conclusions were that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and perceived affordability significantly affected the behavioral intention to purchase energy-saving household appliances. Although Sri Lanka has begun spreading awareness on the use of energy-saving appliances, limited number of studies have reported on this topic. The results of the study suggest that the Ministry of Energy must apply a solid comprehensive awareness program in Sri Lanka, addressing environmental aspects, benefits for the consumers with regards to their health, safety, and interest as well as promoting Energy Star Labels. Additionally, instilling policies involving government loan schemes, low interest rates, and subsidies could serve as motivators for consumers to adopt energy -saving appliances.

Türkiye is the largest cement producer of Europe and the second biggest cement exporter in the world. The industry is responsible for more than 8% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and around 15% of the primary energy consumed worldwide. In this paper, the specific energy consumption (SEC) and related emissions of a real scale cement factory currently running in Türkiye have been decreased by investigating the effects of moisture rate of the raw materials and the hot gas transfer to the grinding unit. The data has been collected in the factory site by using the monitoring equipment and real time detection over a 24-month period. Energy and exergy destructions and exergetic cost distributions are determined by using specific exergy costing method (SPECO) for all units of the factory. The specific exergetic consumption (SExC) and production (MC) costs of raw meal are calculated to be 5.05 $/GJ and 4.13 $/ton, respectively. It is investigated that the hot gas supply to the grinding unit and decreasing the moisture rate of feeding materials decreased the SPECO of raw meal, clinker and cement by 8.25%, 5.49% and 4.89% respectively. The applications provide 184.69 MJ reduction in specific energy consumption (SEC) per ton of cement produced and blocked 75,343.37 tons of CO2 emissions per year and reduced the cement production cost to 40.47 $/ton corresponding to a saving of $2.06 M per year. It has been demonstrated that it is very important to keep the moisture content of raw materials used in the cement industry as low as possible in terms of reducing energy consumption and manufacturing costs for sustainable production.

Mitigating CO2 emissions for space heating (SH) and hot water (HW) preparation in buildings is key to reaching climate protection targets. In this context, it is important to understand meaningful balances between CO2 reduction through thermal renovation activities and the change of heating systems. In this work, we develop cost-optimal balances for different system settings with the Invert/Opt model. This model optimises the measures applied in each building so that the system costs for SH and HW preparation are minimised under given constraints for a given country. About 500–1000 options are considered for each building. We calculate scenarios and sensitivities for all countries of EU-27, reflecting a 95% reduction in CO2 emissions for SH and HW with a mix of direct and indirect RES technologies. These differ in the settings related to the applicability and costs of building-shell-related measures and the costs and availability of resource potentials. The results show that probably a high share of thermal renovation on total upcoming refurbishment activities until 2050 is cost-efficient to reach a 95% CO2 reduction in the EU-27 building stocks. Assuming that up to 90% of the buildings in each EU-27 country is applicable for a thermal renovation in case a refurbishment activity is needed leads to around 4% lower system costs by 2050 (13 billion EUR/year) compared to assuming a maximum share of 35%. Energy needs are reduced on average more in older buildings than in newer buildings. Nonetheless, a combination of thermal renovation and heating system change is often the most cost-effective option to reduce system-wide CO2 emissions also in more recent buildings. The calculations lead to cost-optimal savings in final energy demand in the range of 29–47% between 2019 and 2050. Assuming less favourable conditions for thermal renovation (high capital recovery expectations, additional technical barriers and high availability of cheap fuels) the cost-optimal level of heat savings in buildings for overall EU-27 could be suspected at around 1/3 down to 1/4 of current final energy demand.

One of the major policies for improving industrial energy efficiency is networking companies by region and industrial sector to encourage them to share energy efficiency-related experiences and learn from one another and providing them with necessary support for energy efficiency investment. This method facilitates network management, but its effectiveness may be undermined by the heterogeneity of barriers perceived by the networked companies in the course of energy efficiency investment. Accordingly, this study proposes effective strategies for constructing energy efficiency networks with special reference to the main drivers of corporate investment in energy efficiency improvement for companies in South Korea, which is preparing to introduce related policies. We identified and quantified the major drivers of decision-making on energy efficiency investment in 32 Korean companies, using a hybrid method combining an analytic hierarchical process (AHP) and k-means clustering. The companies were divided into three subgroups with similar investment drivers. Significant differences existed in the decision-making steps of energy efficiency investment and major drivers considered important by the companies depending on corporate characteristics. Results also verified that classifying companies into homogeneous subgroups with similar investment drivers greatly contributes to constructing more effective networks and providing customized policy packages.

Increasing building efficiency is a key topic in territorial policies at different scales, for which new pathways and actions are progressively introduced. However, the evaluation of building consumptions according to energy features and urban and socio-economic variables is crucial to better assess building efficiency measures. This study presents a place-based statistical model for the evaluation of energy demand at the building scale, starting from disaggregating consumption values at the block level. The case study is the central district of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), part of the 2030 Toronto Platform. The existing interactive tool shows energy data only at the block scale, limiting specific evaluations and benchmarking. Therefore, the analysis presents a set of statistical models for assessing residential building consumption by archetypes. The aim of this study is to extend the application and visualisation of the energy demand of the whole city by GIS software. The statistical models underline more reliable results for electricity use, distinguished by appliances and space cooling. Low-rise apartments are the most challenging category to be assessed for appliance use. The variability of natural gas consumption does not allow to build only one model and values for apartment buildings are more variable for different construction ages.

A post-World War 2 building boom in western Germany (the original Bundesrepublik) produced a cohort of some 8 million apartments, built in 1946–1979, that are relatively homogeneous in design and materials. On average, these apartments are very energy-inefficient, consuming around 147 kWh of heating energy per square meter of floor area per year (kWh/m2/y). Retrofitting them to about 50 kWh/m2/y is necessary to meet Germany’s climate goals. Considerable skill and infrastructure have developed to attempt to achieve this, but it is expensive. This study investigates whether sales and rental markets disincentivise property owners from retrofitting these apartments to high energy efficiency standards. Data from sales and rental advertisements in 2019–2021 in Germany’s largest online housing advertisement portal, Immoscout24, were used to estimate market sales and rental premiums for energy efficiency in these apartments. For property owners who retrofit apartments then sell them, sales premiums for energy efficiency generally fail to compensate for the retrofit costs, unless the renovation is subsidised. Meanwhile, for purchasers, the reduction in energy costs due to higher energy efficiency does not compensate for the higher purchase price. Likewise, for landlords/landladies who retrofit apartments then rent them out, the rental premiums due to higher energy efficiency are nowhere near sufficient to compensate for the retrofit costs. Tenants, however, can often offset the rental premium through energy savings. In all four cases, there is regional variation. Based on a detailed investigation of this market for energy efficiency, this study suggests specific policy interventions to compensate for these market anomalies.

In the recent times, the issue of excessive carbon emission is a hot topic among the scholars and governors. In this context, it is necessary to examine the factors affecting the emissions level, particularly in emerging economy like China. Using the extended period from 1990 to 2021, this study analyzes the impact of energy efficiency, economic growth, and renewable energy along with the testing of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) paradox. The empirical results validate the cointegration between the mentioned variables. Employing the novel non-parametric approaches, this study found the existence of the EKC hypothesis in the country as the economic growth initially increases environmental challenges, while reducing it after reaching a specific income level. On the other hand, energy efficiency and renewable energy consumption are found to be significant tools for improving environmental sustainability and reducing of carbon emissions. The robustness of the results is confirmed by the non-parametric (bootstrap quantile regression) and parametric (fully modified ordinary least square) approaches. Based on the outcomes, this study also revealed policy implications for the scholars and governors.