Potential Barriers to Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings: The Case of Supermarket Refrigeration 1
Potential Barriers to Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings: The Case of Supermarket Refrigeration 1
复制标题
提高商业建筑能源效率的潜在障碍：超市制冷案例 1
DOI：
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
A. Wolverton
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
H. Klemick;E. Kopits;A. Wolverton
根据工程分析，能源密集型商业建筑在节省资金的同时有充足的机会减少能源使用，但许多看似有利可图的策略没有被采用。本研究探讨了在超市制冷方面减少能源和制冷剂投资的潜在障碍。虽然超市是能源大户，但能源和制冷剂在支出中所占比例相对较小。然而，由于该行业竞争激烈，降低冷藏成本可能会对超市的底线产生相当大的影响。鉴于在此背景下缺乏经验数据，我们对美国超市代表进行了焦点小组和访谈，以获取有关潜在投资障碍的信息，并使用内容分析对结果进行定性评估。与会者的陈述表明，他们采用特定节能制冷技术和做法的速度与预期回报的估计相当相关。关于新技术性能的不确定性和不完全信息，资本的高机会成本，以及与其他有价值的系统属性（如可靠性和客户吸引力）的权衡是参与者讨论的最普遍的潜在障碍，尽管公司与承包商或员工之间的分裂激励也对一些公司起了作用。我们的评估是，这些因素适度限制或减缓了许多公司对节能制冷技术的投资；只有在不确定性/不完全信息和公司与承包商或雇员之间的激励分离的情况下，这些障碍才可能表明市场失灵。此外，在几个实例中，我们确定了分析师可以改进基于工程的净现值计算的方法，使其与实际的公司决策更加一致。
According to engineering analyses, energy-intensive commercial buildings have ample opportunities to reduce energy use while saving money, but many seemingly profitable strategies go unadopted. This study explores potential barriers to energy- and refrigerant-reducing investments in supermarket refrigeration. While supermarkets are large energy users, energy and refrigerant account for a relatively small proportion of expenditures. However, due to the intensely competitive nature of the industry, reducing refrigeration costs could have a sizable impact on supermarkets’ bottom lines. Given the scarcity of empirical data in this context, we conducted focus groups and interviews with U.S. supermarket representatives to elicit information about potential barriers to investment and used content analysis to qualitatively evaluate results. Participant statements suggest that the rate at which they adopt specific energy-reducing refrigeration technologies and practices correlates fairly well with estimates of expected payback. Uncertainty and imperfect information about the performance of new technologies, high opportunity costs of capital, and tradeoffs with other valued system attributes such as reliability and customer appeal were the most pervasive potential barriers discussed by participants, although split incentives between firms and contractors or employees also played a role for some firms. Our assessment is that these factors have moderately limited or slowed investments in energy-saving refrigeration technologies for many firms; only in the cases of uncertainty/imperfect information and split incentives between firms and contractors or employees are these barriers potentially indicative of market failures. In addition, in several instances we identify ways in which analysts could improve engineering-based net present value calculations to make them more consistent with actual firm decisions.