THIRD PARTY FINANCING: NEW FINANCIAL TOOLS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY - AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

摘要

Issues of energy efficiency are closely linked to financial availability. The latter can be increased by good use of energy due to optimised process management. Third Party Financing (TPF) is an appropriate tool for funding of optimisation strategies without financial charge to the final user. This is due to budget savings from increased energy efficiency and more appropriate allocation of financial resources made available. ESCos (Energy Service Companies) are the new technical and market operators which make the TPF tool available to final users. TPF is regulated by the European Union Directive 93/76/EEC, which is currently being replaced by the more recent Directive 2006/32/EC. Third Party Financing has already been included in the Energy Program of the Italian Government as well as in several Regional Energy Plans. The TPF strategy is strictly related to the White Certificate market (efficiency certificates), which is already regulated by the Italian Ministerial Decree 20/07/2004 as well as by the above-mentioned EU Directive 2006/32/EC. Several examples of the application of TPF to fostering energy efficiency in Italy, with a special focus on space heating for the residential sector, are presented and discussed.