Large corporates are the biggest believers in investing in energy efficiency projects, finds a survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and EEVS of suppliers and potential consumers of such projects in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. Nine out of 10 large corporations have commissioned some form of energy-saving technology, while less than 6 in 10 small and medium businesses have done so.
The disparity may be explained, in part, by the very different expectations held by smaller companies versus bigger ones when it comes to return-on-investment expectations: the report states that around 60 percent of small and medium enterprises expect their energy efficiency projects to pay back within three years, while only about 33 percent of overall respondents held this expectation. (Among larger corporates and public sector entities, a three-to-five-year payback was the more common prediction.)
Over the past year, a trend has emerged wherein consumers of energy efficiency technologies are using in-house funds to pay for the projects. Around 70 percent of reported projects were funded this way. Third-party finance accounted for less than 1 percent of energy-efficiency investment capital.
Lighting technologies dominate the space—about 25 percent of commissioned projects fell into either the high-efficiency lighting or controls category.
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