Why is Energy Efficiency Funding so important and are we missing opportunities?

When people ask me to describe what I do I typically answer by saying something along the lines of;

“I walk into all manner of buildings (industry sites) and I find more efficient ways for those buildings to operate.? The product I sell is my energy saving knowledge and the client typically receives this in the format of an Energy Audit Report.

Although sometimes my Energy Audit Repots have different hats on.? Sometimes they are dressed up as ESOS reports.? ESOS is the governments Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme which requires companies of a certain size in terms of turnover, staff and energy consumption,? to undertake a detailed energy audit.

Sometimes my energy audits are dressed up as Heat De-Carbonisation Plans (HDP).? HDP’s as you may have guessed, focus on how heat is generated and transported, and thermal efficiency of the building.?

Sometimes my energy audits are just pure energy audits which essentially ask three fundamental questions.??

1.????? How much energy is being consumed?

2.????? How is energy being consumed and wasted?

3.????? How can we reduce energy consumption?

So why is funding so important??

Well to state the obvious, if it hadn’t been for the various funding opportunities millions of energy savings projects across the UK would not have been completed.? Funding is by far the biggest obstacle preventing further investment in energy saving technology.

In 2008 Salix launched its recycling fund.? This was for public sector organisations.? The recycling fund was an opportunity for public sector organisations to secure match funding.? All they had to do was dance to the Salix tune.

Essentially the organisation had to meet Salix’s criteria, part of which meant having an allocated pot of funds, or as they called it a ring-fenced amount.? Once Salix was satisfied all criteria had been met (which was code for you could dance). They would match fund and essentially double your money, so to speak.

The public sector organisation then had twice their ring-fenced amount to allocate to energy saving projects.? All savings generated from the projects were recycled back into the scheme.? This meant qualifying organisations always had a year-on-year revolving fund for energy saving projects.

The Salix recycling fund was an incredible success and a significant vehicle for public sector de-carbonisation.? Part of its success was due to how well publicised it was.? For example, everyone I knew in an energy or environmental role within the public sector was aware of it.

Moving on other notable successes include the Public Sector De-Carbonisation Scheme.? Again, this was well publicised and as a result has always been over-subscribed.

However, not all Energy/carbon efficiency funds are equal in terms of publicity.? More recently we have had the Industrial Energy Transformation fund.? Which aims to provide funding to reduce energy/carbon within heavy industry.? In my opinion (experience) this is not well known of.? Particularly amongst the manufacturing clients I have worked with.?

Which is a shame as this scheme represented a significant funding opportunity for big industry and as such, a significant opportunity to generate energy/carbon savings.? My suspicion is that this particular pot of funding was not fully subscribed.? Hence, we missed an opportunity.

The Heat Network Energy Efficiency fund is another scheme offering organisations millions of pounds in funding and yet, has it really been publicised? I would argue it hasn’t been publicised enough.

Even more recently, the Voluntary Sector Social Enterprise Energy Efficiency fund was launched. This scheme provides funding for charitable organisations to become more efficient.?

As will all public sector funding charities most prove their eligibility before being granted access to two pots of funding.? The first pot is to fund an Energy survey undertaken by an energy auditor.? Once the charity has had the energy survey completed, they can then apply for up to ￡150,000 for capital works.

What this fund does is remove the massive funding barrier for charities to invest in energy efficient equipment.? Making charitable organisations more efficient means they spend less on energy and have more funds to plough back into the great work they do.

This then feeds back into our country. Which helps, and assists, and improves the quality of life for millions of people.? In my view the social impact of this far out ways the burden to the taxpayer.

And in my mind, this is one of the many reasons why funding is so important.