Growth and Development of Energy Service Company Markets The Case of Lund, Sweden

Sammanfattning: An energy service company (ESCO) is an example of an atypical business concept that generates greater positive externalities as its business grows. The basic business concept of an ESCO is a company that installs energy efficient improvements in their customers' buildings, such as new lighting and ventilation systems, and then recovers expenditures and gains profits by splitting the resulting financial savings from reductions in energy use with their customer. These energy savings are gained over a period of time and are evaluated and quantified financially according to the details specified in a performance contract between the ESCO and their customer. The main objective of this thesis was to assess this potential for growth and development of the ESCO market within the Lund market and general Swedish ESCO market conditions Lund as demonstrated by four potential actors, three real estate actors and one energy utility. Evaluation criteria were used as tools to evaluate three Lund real estate actors as potential ESCO customers and one Lund energy retail supplier as a potential ESCO. The size of ESCO markets in Sweden and globally do not correspond to the current cost effective energy efficiency measures that can be undertaken. No insurmountable barriers were identified for performance contracting to occur within the three real estate organizations in this study. Policy instruments could, however, serve to make ESCO contracts a smoother and quicker contract process allowing for the market for this business concept to grow.