Improving Energy Efficiency through Technology

Dynamics and determinants of energy intensity in the service sector: A cross-country analysis, 1980–2005

“…In view of the low share of energy in total costs, the policies that will be called for are most likely to be of different nature than traditional tax and subsidy programs (see, e.g. De Groot et al 2001 andFlorax et al 2011). This is further reinforced by the results of this paper which reveal that energy prices can hardly explain variation in energy productivity levels.…”

“…It can be seen that across the 18 OECD countries in our sample, in 2005 the service sector is responsible for about two-third of total value added and one-fifth of total energy consumption. Interestingly, Table 1 shows that the value added share has increased at a fairly 2 Recent exceptions include Florax et al (2011), Huntington (2010), and Mairet and Decellas (2009). modest speed over time, whereas the energy share has increased considerably -even up to 25% in main Western European countries (EU6) and Japan. 3 Source: See Mulder and De Groot (2012) and Section 2 for details on the dataset.…”

“…In Section 4 we present the results of a decomposition analysis that separates the role of technological progress from shifts in the underlying sector structure in driving aggregate energy intensity dynamics in the service sector. This exercise yields insights into the realized potential of energy saving technological progress during the period 1980-2005 -which is, for example, of great interest in view of maintained arguments that energy saving is particularly difficult in energy extensive sectors (see, for example, Florax et al 2011). We complete our analysis in Section 5 with a panel data regression analysis aiming to identify key determinants of cross-sectional and temporal energy intensity dynamics in the service sector, with special attention for the potential role of the emergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) after 1995.…”

Quantifying the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Current Status and Trends

“…The energy footprints of pork and lamb are 40 MJ/kg and 43 MJ/kg respectively [77], reconfirming that a dietary shift from red meat to chicken contributes to a sustainable society. Notably, energy efficiency, as measured by energy use per ton of physical product output, of meat sectors in Europe has gradually decreased [78]. The deterioration in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom from 1990 to 2001 was primarily caused by more stringent hygiene regulations for food security, e.g., the temperature of water used for cleaning and Energies 2016, 9, 65 9 of 17 sterilization in slaughterhouses was required to increase from 60˝C to 82˝C, requiring more energy for meat processing [79].…”

Dutch sectoral energy intensity developments in international perspective, 1987–2005

“…Because of limited data availability, existing cross-country energy studies typically come at the price of limited sectoral detail. This is a serious drawback, because aggregate trends of energy intensity mask considerable differences across industries and a limited degree of sectoral disaggregation may lead to biased results as it may obscure shifts from energy intensive to energy extensive subsectors (see, for example, Florax et al 2011, Huntington 2010, Mulder 2005. Moreover, although service sectors and energy-extensive industries are responsible for a considerable and increasing share of energy use in developed countries, most energy studies continue to focus on the Manufacturing sector with an emphasis on heavy industries (see, for example, Eichhammer and Mansbart 1997, Fisher-Vanden et al 2004, Howarth et al 1991, Lescaroux 2008, Unander et al 1999, Unander 2007 The structure of the paper is as follows.…”