Barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency in the Swedish foundry industry

TLDR: In this paper, the authors investigated the existence of different barriers to and driving forces for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the energy intensive Swedish foundry industry and found that energy consultants or other actors working with energy issues in foundries are of major importance in overcoming the largest barriers.

About: This article is published in Energy Policy.The article was published on 2007-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 325 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Energy policy & Energy conservation.

Figures

Table 1: Classification of barriers to energy efficiency (Based on SPRU, 2000).

Fig. 3. Barriers depending on private or group ownership. The barriers were rated, 1 point if the respondent considered the question to be of ‘major importance’, 0.5 points for ‘sometimes important’ and no points for ‘rarely important’.

Table 2: Ranking of different sources of information, 1 p for ‘excellent’, 0.67 p for ‘good’, 0.33 p for ‘fair’ and 0 p for ‘not good’. It should be noted that the differences in average response of only a few percent may only represent random statistical variation.

Fig. 2. Ranked results from the questionnaire. The barriers and drivers were rated, 1 point if the respondent considered the question to be of ‘major importance’, 0.5 points for ‘sometimes important’ and no points for ‘rarely important’. It should be noted that the differences in average response of only a few percent may only represent random statistical variation.

Fig. 1. Foundry sector’s average use of electricity in relation to the total energy use [%] and electricity prices for 1-9 GWh and 9-50 GWh enterprises in some European countries. For the Netherlands, too few observations were made in order to state a figure for enterprises using 9-50 GWh annually (based on 0).

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency " ?

This paper investigates the existence of different barriers to and driving forces for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the energy intensive Swedish foundry industry. This study also found that energy consultants or other actors working with energy issues in foundries are of major importance in overcoming the largest barriers, as the foundries consider them trustworthy. 

Q2. What are the future works mentioned in the paper "Barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency " ?

However, it appears that respondents and the participants at the workshop had limited knowledge of this possibility, and also that smaller companies have limited access to this type of arrangement. A notable finding ( see Table 2 ) was that the top ranked sources were characterised by long-term and close relations with colleagues, staff at the Swedish Foundry Association and consultants, indicating that personal relations may be an effective catalyst in providing information about energy efficiency opportunities. A conclusion from this may be that energy consultants and other energy actors working with group owned foundries are of major importance in overcoming the largest barriers as they are considered trustworthy by the foundries, and thus may help solve organisational problems such as lack of sub-metering and 15 lack of budget funds by quantifying potential energy efficiency investments. 

Q3. How much energy is used in Sweden?

Annual production in Sweden amounts to 325,000 tons of castings of which 76% is iron, 18% non-ferrous and 6% steel resulting in an aggregated annual energy use of about 1 TWh (Swedish Foundry Association, 2004a). 

Q4. What are the main reasons for the increase in electricity prices in Sweden?

Growing concern for global warming resulting from the use of fossil fuels has led to the implementation of a number of policy instruments, e.g. CO2 tradable emission allowances and green electricity certificates. 

Q5. What were the barriers of least importance according to the respondents?

The barriers of least importance according to the respondents were: department and workers not being accountable for energy costs, energy manager lacking influence, conflicts of interest within the company and cost of staff replacement, retiring and retraining. 

Q6. What is the main reason why the Swedish foundry industry is exposed to a competitive disadvantage?

The Swedish industry, which historically has enjoyed one of the lowestelectricity prices in Europe, is exposed to a competitive disadvantage as the opening of the domestic energy markets has led to increasing electricity prices (EEPO, 2004). 

Q7. How many people are employed in the Swedish foundry industry?

The Swedish foundry industry, which mainly produces for domestic markets, involves about 130 enterprises and employs some 7,350 people. 

Q8. What is the main purpose of sub-metering at plants?

Sub-metering at plants serves to distribute company energy costs among departments in a more individualised way than strictly based on floor area or on number of employees leading to a lack of incentives to make energy efficiency commitments as there is ’nothing in it’ for the department. 

Q9. How many sites were claimed to have energy efficiency measures?

Costefficient energy efficiency measures were claimed to exist at 93% of the sites according to the respondents, verifying the existence of an energy efficiency gap. 

Q10. What is the main conclusion from this study?

A conclusion from this may be that energy consultants and other energy actors working with group owned foundries are of major importance in overcoming the largest barriers as they are considered trustworthy by the foundries, and thus may help solve organisational problems such as lack of sub-metering and15lack of budget funds by quantifying potential energy efficiency investments. 

Q11. What are the main barriers to energy efficiency?

company oriented policy instruments like promoting third party financing and striving for long-term energy strategies are more likely to encourage energy efficiency investments. 

Q12. What is the main reason for the lack of energy efficiency measures in the foundry industry?

Despite the need for increasing industrial energy efficiency, studies indicatethat cost-efficient energy conservation measures1 are not always implemented, implying the existence of an ‘energy-efficiency gap’. 

Q13. What percentage of the respondents have not shown net profits in the last 3 years?

8Results from this survey show that among the studied foundries only 50 %have been a paying concern for the last 3 years and 69 % have not shown net profits at all in the same period. 

Q14. What were the largest barriers faced by the group owned foundries?

When making a distinction between group owned and privately ownedfoundries, it was found that the largest barriers faced among the group owned foundries could be related to organisational problems while the largest barriers faced among the privately owned firms were related to information problems. 

Q15. What is the purpose of this paper?

This paper investigates the existence of different barriers to and driving forces for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the energy intensive Swedish foundry industry and is one part of a larger ongoing research project with the focus of creating opportunities for the Swedish foundry industry to use electricity and energy more efficiently. 

Q16. What was the main finding of the study?

A notable finding (see Table 2) was that the top ranked sources were characterised by long-term and close relations with colleagues, staff at the Swedish Foundry Association and consultants, indicating that personal relations may be an effective catalyst in providing information about energy efficiency opportunities.