Politikinstrumente zur Effizienzsteigerung von Elektrogeräten und ...

UBA-TEXTE 20/2006 245Focus of the energy efficiency fund 6Due to the definition and the financial weight in the scope of the instrument packet introducedhere, the topic of energy efficiency funds has been handled in more detail in this study. Thefocus was especially on the question of "financing possibilities for an energy efficiency fund“.Hindrances to electricity efficiencyVery many measures to increase energy efficiency, especially in the electricity area, areeconomically feasible. However, there are a group of hindrances that result in thesemeasures still not being implemented.The three main reasons that should affect a fund are:1) Due to a relatively low percentage of electricity costs for households and in the small-scalesector, the possible savings are too low to attract a great deal of attention.2) Therefore, the financial savings that energy services or investments in especially efficientdevices and systems could bring for households and the small-scale sector are oftenabsolutely too small in relation to the transaction effort (information, consultation, searchefforts). The transaction effort is high because, among other things, the correspondinginvestment (in devices and systems) is seldom made, the technological innovations in manytechnologies are very dynamic and therefore every investment or use of an energy servicerequires obtaining complex information.3) The level of knowledge about technically feasible and economically practical measures toimprove energy efficiency is insufficient.Therefore, there are good chances of using a combination of the consultations andpromotional offers while including market partners (planners, craftsmen) to reducetransaction costs and, therefore, to stimulate the implementation of the measures.The goal of an energy efficiency fundSince controlling the energy price, the legal aspects, as well as other "soft" instruments aloneare not sufficient or cannot be implemented satisfactorily, an energy efficiency fund shouldserve to reduce the transaction costs for the electricity consumer. It does this by reducing theinformation, consultation, and investment effort for efficient products and services byfinancing very targeted programs. In addition, its programs contribute to standardizing theseoffers, especially in the energy service area, and therefore to further reduce transactioncosts. The ideal goal is to use each program to drive forward the market penetration of themost efficient programs and services so that additional fund support can then be ended.6Due to the research conditions, the observations here concentrated on the electricity efficiency.The funds can principally also be used for increasing efficiency in other areas and for other sourcesof energy.