Energy Efficiency In Developing Countries

This book presents a comparative analysis of energy efficiency policies in developing countries. Although there is a vast amount of literature available about renewable energy policy and implementation in the developing world, energy efficiency tends to lack attention. This book fills this lacuna by examining the current state of the field and scope for future improvements. Drawing on a wide range of case studies including Brazil, China and Chile, the authors use a comparative approach to examine the policies and programmes being implemented, looking at the existing legal frameworks and regulatory challenges. By showcasing stories of success, as well as barriers to energy efficiency, they highlight the opportunities for increased energy access and efficiency and demonstrate how these opportunities may directly impact on climate change mitigation. This volume will be a useful resource for scholars and practitioners with an interest in energy policy and efficiency, climate change and international development.

Urbanization and growing wealth in developing countries portend a large increase of demand for modern energy services in residential, commercial and public-service buildings in the coming decades. Pursuing energy efficiency in buildings is vital to energy security in developing countries and is identified by the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change as having the greatest potential for cost-effective reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030 among all energy-consuming sectors. Building energy efficiency codes (BEECs), along with energy efficiency standards for major appliances and equipment, are broadly recognized as a necessary government intervention to overcome persistent market barriers to capturing the economic potential of energy efficiency gains in the residential, commercial and public-service sectors. Implementation of BEECs help prevent costly energy wastes over the lifecycles of buildings in space heating, air conditioning, lighting, and other energy service requirements. Nonetheless, achieving the full potential of energy savings afforded by more energy-efficient buildings requires holding people who live or work in buildings accountable for the cost of energy services. Compliance enforcement has been the biggest challenge to implementing BEECs. This report summarizes the findings of an extensive literature survey of the experiences of implementing BEECs in developed countries, as well as those from case studies of China, Egypt, India, and Mexico. It also serves as a primer on the basic features and contents of BEECs and the commonly adopted compliance and enforcement approaches. This report highlights the key challenges to improving compliance enforcement in developing countries, including government commitment to energy efficiency, the effectiveness of government oversight of the construction sector, the compliance capacity of building supply chain, and financing constraints. The report notes that the process of transforming a country s building supply chain toward delivering increasingly more energy-efficient buildings takes time and requires persistent government intervention through uniformly enforced and regularly updated BEECs. The report recommends increased international support in strengthening the enforcement infrastructure for BEECs in middle-income developing countries. For low- and lower-middle-income countries, there is an urgent need to assist in improving the effectiveness of government oversight system for building construction, laying the foundation for the system to also cover BEECs.

There is a congruence of several forces in the developing world that makes very timely the formulation of a strategy to address energy efficiency and conservation issues better. Many countries are becoming receptive to reforming the way energy is produced and consumed as they experience (a) rapidly growing demand for energy; (b) major constraints on available energy financing; (c) increased pressures to sustain the environment; (d) poor energy sector performance and unsatisfied customers; and (e) a reappraisal of the roles of government and of the public and private sectors in development. These factors are forcing developing countries to address long-neglected issues of energy wastage in production and end use. The World Bank now has an enhanced opportunity to further assist developing countries to improve their energy efficiency and conservation policies and practices. The paper provides a background on the evolution of developed versus developing-country energy efficiency and summarizes World Bank experience. It outlines the growing energy demand in developing countries and the accompanying financial and environmental problems that bring energy-efficiency issues to the forefront. The paper then sets out the potential for improved energy efficiency and the main reasons that efficiency has been so poor. Finally, it summarizes the priority actions for achieving energy efficiency in developing countries and sets out a four-point program for the World Bank.

While energy efficiency projects could partly meet new energy demand more cheaply than new supplies, weak economic institutions in developing and transitional economies impede developing and financing energy efficiency retrofits. This book analyzes these difficulties, suggests a 3-part model for projectizing and financing energy efficiency retrofits, and presents thirteen case studies to illustrate the issues and principles involved.

This book analyzes the potential for improving energy efficiency in industry, and reviews alternative approaches to energy rationalization programs in developing countries. To provide the framework for discussing the potential for and approaches to industrial energy rationalization, the book begins with a review of energy consumption patterns as well as the processes and fuels used in industry. It discusses typical measures for improving energy efficiency through conservation and fuel diversification. The energy-saving potential and the economics of energy utilization in the industrial sector are also reviewed. The experience of selected developed and developing countries with industrial energy rationalization programs suggests that there is a need for a balanced approach to such programs. As the book explains, the design, start up, and implementation and monitoring of these programs include a number of highly technical activities that require special government efforts. It provides details of some of the key elements of such programs. Finally, the role that financial and development institutions can play in the initiation and support of industrial energy rationalization programs is discussed.