Identification and Categorization of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Energy Efficiency Measures within Compressed Air Systems

Abstract

Understanding the factors driving the implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems is crucial to improve industrial energy efficiency, given their low implementation rate. Starting from a thorough review of the literature, it is thus clear the need to support companies in the decision-making process by offering an innovative framework encompassing the most relevant factors to be considered when adopting energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems, inclusive of the impacts on the production resources and the operations of a company. The framework, designed following the perspective of the industrial decision-makers, has been validated, both theoretically and empirically, and preliminarily applied to a heterogeneous cluster of manufacturing industries. Results show that, beside operational, energetic, and economic factors, in particular contextual factors such as complexity, compatibility, and observability may highlight critical features of energy efficiency measures whose absence may change the outcome of a decision-making process. Further, greater awareness and knowledge over the important factors given by the implementation of the framework could play an important role in fostering the implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems. The paper concludes with further research avenues to further promote energy efficiency and sustainability oriented practices in the industrial sector.

Identification and characterization of decision-making factors over industrial energy efficiency measures in electric motor systems

“…Our empirical findings corroborate previous works linking complexity and compatibility of innovation and the respective level of adoption [16,17]. However, referring to the broad concept of innovation, previous analyses lack the level of detail necessary for an empirical assessment of EMS EEMs, being rather focused on compressed air systems [75]. Nevertheless, being the compressed air systems an ancillary service, important considerations that might play a critical role for EMS were not captured (e.g., the need to adapt to the variation of production conditions, as shown by EEM 1-1 or EEM 3-2).…”

“…Corporate involvement [13,43,73,74] Perception, collaboration with clients, suppliers, competitors [36,43] Nature [36] Increased communication between department and levels within the firm [74] Activity type [12,13,32,75] Workers' productivity [53,[76][77][78][79][80] Scope of impact [12] Labour savings (or labour cost) [33][34][35]37,42,47,49,51,53,55,57,61,64,77,[81][82][83][84] Targeted area [36] Reduction in labour requirement [31,34,38,39,[45][46][47]49,50,69,77,…”

“…The second part of the interview has dealt with the preliminary validation of the framework according to a predetermined set of indicators. A Likert scale from one (poor) to four (excellent) is used, similarly to [75]. The features interested by the analysis firstly has encompassed the structure, scope and perspective of the framework, followed by the categories, sub-categories and factors, considered in this step as clusters.…”

The Role of Contextual Characteristics in the Adoption of Energy Efficiency Measures in Electric Motors Systems: An Exploratory Analysis

“…Literature shows that motivation can be found primarily in information and economic barriers [3]. In this regard, studies have been developed to characterize EEMs [4][5][6][7][8] to shed light on aspects of their adoption and facilitate overcoming information barriers. In addition, literature has begun to link these characteristics to the multiple impacts (both benefits [9] and losses [10]) that adoption has been seen to have on operations and productivity and overall firm's sustainability [11].…”

Towards a More Realistic Cost–Benefit Analysis—Attempting to Integrate Transaction Costs and Energy Efficiency Services

“…While we show that transaction costs do exist, we explain (and illustrate) that they are not a (rational) argument for not implementing energy efficiency measures. In so doing, we believe in contributing to persuading potential adopters/investors to invest in energy efficiency measures helping to overcome both the moderate interest in energy efficiency measures and the energy efficiency gap in general [8][9][10][11], the latter of which has been scrutinized in the literature for the businesses sector [12][13][14][15][16]. The prioritization of energy efficiency is decisive for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as agreed in the Paris Agreement [17] and proposed by the EU Commission's Green Deal [18].…”