It is assessed that there is a huge potential for reducing energy consumption in Danish companies. On the basis of this, the Danish Energy Agency established the Energy Saving Secretariat for the period 2014-2017 with a grant of DKK 40 million. The purpose of the Secretariat is to promote the realisation of energy savings in especially small and medium-sized enterprises by identifying and disseminating knowledge about potential energy savings potential in companies.
In order to draw attention to the impact of the Energy Saving Secretariat's activities, the Danish Energy Agency has asked Højbjerre Brauer Schultz and the Halo Agency to carry out an impact assessment of the Energy Saves Secretariat's main activities during the period 2014-2017. Specifically, the impact assessment is based on four key campaigns and two additional information activities. Below, the main results are presented only for the campaigns ‘LED in the Retail’ and ‘The Agricultural Campaign’.
Main results
LED in the Retail Lighting accounts for about 50% of the retail industry’s electricity consumption, and thus there are potentially great environmental and economic benefits in switching to LED lighting. The purpose of the LED campaign was to increase the change to LEDs in small and medium-sized retail stores by impacting knowledge, attitude and behaviour.
The elements of the campaign were made up of non-commercial LED consultants, a public relations effort, a network effort with e-mails to visiting municipalities and knowledge sharing with e-mails to other municipalities. The LED consultants visited a total of 2,102 retail stores, 1,274 in 2016 and 828 in 2017. On this basis, the stores were offered the opportunity to prepare a report calculating the energy saving potential by changing to LED.
The quantitative analysis indicates that the campaign has had a positive effect on retailers’ behaviour with regard to installing LED lighting. We find that the probability of having LED installed after the campaign has taken place is about 20% higher in stores that have been visited by an LED consultant compared to stores that have not visited by them. This result should be seen in the light of the fact that knowledge of the possibility of financial support for energy efficiency through the energy companies is not significantly higher among visited stores than among control stores. We have also calculated that the LED campaign may lead to a total savings of no more than approx. DKK 13 million over 7 years in the retail stores visited by an LED consultant. It must be weighed against the cost of just under DKK 3 million that was associated with the implementation of the campaign.
The Agricultural Campaign In 2016, the Energy Saving Secretariat found that only 10% of surveyed agricultural holding had full LED lighting in the barn areas. The assessment was that there was a large energy saving potential to be made within agriculture. The purpose of the effort was to increase the change to LED and energy efficient ventilation in agricultural holdings by impacting knowledge, attitude and behaviour.
The campaign was comprised of three elements: Educational meetings for agricultural consultants with the aim of giving them the means of advising farmers on LED lighting and energy efficient ventilation. Information on the website sparenergi.dk/erhverv with light calculation tools, reports, films, cases etc. as well as a competition that was promoted on social media, where farmers could win a free energy screening.
The quantitative analysis finds indications that the campaign may have had a positive effect on farmers’ expectations of increasing the use of LED lighting and/or energy efficient ventilation in the coming years. However, the quantitative analysis also finds that the campaign has not led to energy savings in the short term.
The study is commissioned by the Danish Energy Agency.
Links
Højbjerre Brauer Schultz (2018): "Effektvurdering af Energisparesekretariatets aktiviteter".
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