Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3.3 Barriers to the ESCO Industry in Spain
In addition to the hurdles caused by the Spanish government
'
s inability to comply
with EU and Spanish legislation, we have identi
ed a number of additional barriers
to the development of the ESCO market in Spain, which we have grouped into the
following
ve categories:
Administrative: Overall, local governments in Spain are composed of inef
-
cient decision-making structures that are extremely difcult
to change;
the
public procurement process is lengthy and inef
cient and; administrative
accounting systems are not set up to ef
ciently realize energy cost savings.
Technical: There are no standard and enforced measurement and veri
cation
protocols and;
there lacks a neutral
third-party institution that certi
es the
accountability of a particular ESCO.
Financial: There are no suitable
nancing schemes for the development of
ESCOs and ESCO projects. Before the economic crisis, most ESCOs dealt with
commercial banks for
nancing. However, now this source of
nancing has
virtually disappeared. Currently, many ESCOs are
nancing projects with their
own money which is unsustainable. High transaction costs decrease interest for
both the client and the ESCO. ESCOs cannot justify the administrative costs to
carry out small projects.
Informational: Citizens have limited awareness of energy ef
cient technolo-
gies; high perceived technical and
nancial risk and aversion to long payback
periods. Split incentives: a renter pays the energy bill while the owner is
responsible for any renovations. Thus, the owner has no incentive to invest in
energy ef
ciency measures since the savings are captured by the renter. Like-
wise, the renter is not sure if she will live in the property long enough to
recuperate such an investment.
Market-related: Each autonomous community has their own legislation and
hierarchy related to energy generation and conservation. This represents an
obstacle for ESCOs to expand into several regions and therefore reach a critical
mass and obtain operational ef
ciencies.
Considering the reality that Spain is highly fragmented with respect to the
particular energy policies and cultural environment found in each autonomous
region, we became motivated to carry out an analysis of the ESCO market at the
Barcelona metropolitan level.
4 The Barcelonian Framework
Barcelona is less pollutant compared to other globally important cities in a number
of metrics, such as greenhouse gas emissions per inhabitant. For instance, in 2008,
greenhouse gas emissions per capita in Barcelona were roughly half of those in
Search WWH ::
Custom Search