Portuguese SME toward energy efficiency improvement
About 50 % of world energy consumption is due to industrial use (DOE/EIA 2011), with consequences in carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. Reducing energy consumption in industry is therefore an important strategy to achieve the target of energy policies in Europe, of reducing the energy consumption of 20 % by 2020. In order to identify the situation in Portuguese small and medium enterprises (SME) concerning energy efficiency, the project EFINERG involved several stakeholders and was developed and implemented in five sectors: food, agriculture and beverage; ceramics and glass; wood, furniture, and cork; metal industry; and textile and clothes. The objective was to analyze the situation mainly in SME with energy consumption between 250 and 500 toe, in order to provide SME the necessary conditions to adopt energy efficiency improvements, best practices, and technological solutions that answer the problems diagnosed. In the companies involved in the project, the barriers to energy efficiency were listed and classified according to different levels: information, organizational, training/behavioral, economic, and financial. The main barriers and the result of the discussion with the different stakeholders in order identify measures that can contribute to overcome the problem are also included.