Beyond barriers – A case study on driving forces for improved energy efficiency in the foundry industries in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden

Abstract

Energy management plays an important role in the transformation of industrial energy systems towards improved energy efficiency and increased sustainability. This paper aims to study driving forces for improved energy efficiency in some European energy-intensive foundry industries. The investigation has been conducted as a multiple case study involving 65 foundries located in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. The most relevant perceived driving forces were found to be financially related, followed by organizational driving forces. Nevertheless, some differences can be appreciated according to the firm's size and country. Almost half of the studied foundries lack a long-term energy strategy, about one-fourth stated that they have used Energy Performance Contracting (EPC),and only approximately one in ten foundries have used Third Party Financing (TPF). Among the studied foundries, three out of five have conducted an energy audit. On average, the energy saving potential according to the respondents is stated to be 7.5%. In conclusion, energy management in the European foundry industry, despite increasing energy prices and extensive energy policy actions taken by the EU, still seems to have great improvement potential, calling for future research and policy actions in the field.

Closing the Energy Efficiency Gap—A Systematic Review of Empirical Articles on Drivers to Energy Efficiency in Manufacturing Firms

“…A majority of the articles in our sample take the perspective of practitioners and apply multidisciplinary frameworks and taxonomies to guide their research, e.g., [23,24,26,28,29,31]. The taxonomies provide valuable insights about the magnitude and complexity of drivers that stimulate the energy efficiency of manufacturing firms.…”

“…Both energy use and energy tariffs impact the operating costs. Thus, reduced energy use, e.g., [29,73,74], and/or increasing energy tariffs, e.g., [29,73,74], are found to increase energy efficiency in firms. The motive of lower energy use is, however, more frequent than increased energy tariffs.…”

“…A more detailed illustration ( Figure 4) shows that empirical data are collected from 27 countries, of which Sweden, Italy, and the US predominate. Most of the studies are based on single-country analysis; only four studies conduct cross-country comparisons [25,29,50,51], focusing exclusively on Western European countries. A more detailed illustration ( Figure 4) shows that empirical data are collected from 27 countries, of which Sweden, Italy, and the US predominate.…”

Drivers, Barriers, and Success Factors for Improving Energy Management in the Pulp and Paper Industry

“…Meanwhile, a large automobile manufacturer, using less than 0.1% of the Swedish industrial energy use, can rely more heavily on procurement practices, procuring the most efficient new technologies, and also being able to utilize energy service companies to a higher extent. In comparison, a study among European foundries showed deployment levels of energy services in about one fourth of the studies foundries [43].…”

“…Outsourcing of EnM is seen as a promising means of deploying EE in industry and the European Energy Services and EE Directive from 2006 addressed energy services as a promising means for the EU to overcome barriers and improve EE [42]. In one study within the European foundry industry [43], energy services were seen to have reached some level of deployment, even though this was not large. About one fourth of the studied companies had used Energy Performance Contracting.…”