According to panelists at the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings summit, energy service providers offering off-balance sheet efficiency products have seen rapid growth in the number of deals signed each year.
A 2017 market report by Navigant estimated Energy Efficiency as a Service could become a $221 billion market by 2026, up from about $50 billion in 2017. Panelists said that growth is showing up in the market, but also warned it is fueled by financing and project complexities that companies want to avoid.
The growth of EEaS agreements belies a problem with how energy efficiency projects are financed and the difficulties in implementation. “Efficiency as a service is about delivering simplicity, delivering energy efficiency easily to the end user,” said Aaron Block, CEO of Allumia, an EEaS provider for small businesses. “It is a symptom of the overall problem, which is that energy efficiency projects aren’t getting done.”
