Within the next ten years, Germany could reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 160 million tons through energy end-use efficiency. This can be achieved if investors, when purchasing appliances, building and renovating buildings and manufacturing plants, each time choose the most energy-efficient solution. These are results of this study.
In this way, at least 120 million tons of emissions per year can be profitably avoided. This means, that for consumers and for the economy the savings on their energy bills are significantly higher than the extra costs for the most energy efficient appliance, the most efficient installation or an additional heat insulation. About 70 single or packaged technical measures were analysed in detail. The study shows that, within the next decades, the existing technologies can even enable a reduction of energy consumption in private households, industry, as well as in the commercial and public sectors by approximately 40 percent. A requirement is that the choice of technologies and measures does not occur by coincidence but rather by applying only the best.
Investments in energy efficiency can score with a return on investment of mostly more than 10 percent, in particular cases even with over 100 percent. This opens up a big market for energy efficiency services, particularly in industry, the commercial and the public sector. Energy companies such as E.ON can be professionals for the entire energy service. Everyone can benefit from competition in the "energy efficiency business". Energy companies can support their customers in stabilizing or even lowering their energy bills despite increasing energy prices, and still achieve a profit for themselves.
Companies belonging to the E.ON group in Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and the USA already offer more than 100 different services for saving energy, of which about 20 were documented in detail in the study.