2010a) “ICT for Energy Efficiency: Towards Smart Buildings, Manufacturing, Lighting and Grids

Abstract

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) has set its specific target of a 20% energy reduction in EU energy consumption by 2020. Achieving this goal will require major breakthroughs in the research and development (R&D) of new technologies. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are today pervasive to all industrial and business sectors. They are expected to have a significant impact on energy efficiency in the future. In this paper, the four industrial disciplines of buildings, manufacturing, lighting and power grids are identified to have great potential to deploy ICT to improve their energy efficiency. These four sectors often come together in delivering infrastructures and environments for production, business and living, and together they produce and consume a significant proportion of Europe's energy. The state-of-the-art ICT for Energy Efficiency (ICT4EE) in these four sectors are discussed with focuses mainly on their available data on the potential impact, potential to improve through research, development and deployment, obstacles impeding the realisation of full potential, and actions which can be taken to accelerate achievement of potential. This leads to an ICT4EE impact assessment model which is needed to identify complementarities and synergies among these four sectors, harmonising common research and technological development (RTD) priorities, and establishing a cross-sectoral community with links to key stakeholders from them. A methodology for impact assessment model of ICT4EE has been designed on the basis of life cycle assessment and causal relationships which come from the currently existing research. The paper concludes that in order to achieve the full potential of ICT4EE, further support of multidisciplinary R&D and innovation demonstrating the potential of ICT based solutions are needed to boost, reinforce, foster and accelerate the deployment of energy efficient solutions in these four industrial domains