The European ESCO market: recent trends, market sizes, barriers and drivers and the remaining market potential

摘要

As part of the regular pan-European survey of Energy ServiceCompanies (ESCOs) and their markets, a wide-scale expertsbasedmarket research was carried out by the European Commission,Joint Research Center in 2013.The paper compares the key indicators and market specificitiesof the ESCO markets of the EU and its neighbouringcountries, in particular related to the size of the markets, thenumber of actors and structural changes in the markets since2010. The most important success factors and market barriersare explained with country-specific indications.In general, a growing trend was observed throughout of thenational ESCO markets of Europe between 2010 and 2013. Thestrongest growth was experienced in Denmark, France, Irelandand Spain, while Hungary appears to be the sole EU countryaffected by a clear decline. Development – where it happened –was noted in volume, complexity and/or maturity. ESCOs havealso foraged in areas where they were inactive before. Nevertheless,the markets are far from reaching their potential.As of today, the ESCO markets are driven as much by marketforces (i.e. increasing energy costs, growing interest from potentialclients, development of partnership between players), asby dedicated policy measures, regulations and financial solutions.Interestingly the list of drivers is similar in many countries,but the leveraging success factors and the leading barriersare diverse.