Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up over 99 per cent of all enterprises in many European countries and represent a substantial market opportunity for energy efficiency improvements. However, this opportunity remains largely untapped of its full potential due to several barriers, including a lack of trust between the different actors; energy efficiency not being a high investment priority for enterprises; a lack of stable and accessible financing instruments; and a lack of experience with financing energy efficiency.
Servitisation models, sometimes referred to as pay-per-use, pay-as-you-go, or product-as-a-service, have a payment structure that allows customers (energy consumers) to access efficient technologies and solutions but only pay for the energy, product or deliverable that they actually use. These schemes are not new and are gaining popularity as they allow customers to access flexible products that match their fluctuating needs. Servitisation models involve innovative pricing schemes that go beyond mere renting or leasing of products by bundling services together with the product as a consumer-focussed, integrated solution. For certain assets, customers are increasingly attracted by the prospect of paying to use, rather than paying to own. This model is creating a transition from selling products to selling services.
The Efficiency as a Service (EaaS) project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and focuses on mainstreaming an innovative and disruptive business financing scheme and aims to increase and accelerate the adoption of energy efficient technologies by SMEs in the EU.
The EaaS proposes a programme which aims to develop and deploy a new business model and financial structure that will enable and facilitate the market transition and adoption to energy efficient equipment-as-a-service. The EaaS financing scheme has two main components:
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 892499. The content within this text reflects only the author’s views, and not the views of the European Commission or the Executive Agency for SME’s. The Commission and Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
