Commercial building energy efficiency retrofits will surpass US$127 billion in annual market value by 2023, says firm

Commercial building energy efficiency retrofits will surpass US$127 billion in annual market value by 2023, says firm

Press release, April 7; Alex Wolfgram, DIGITIMES[Tuesday 8 April 2014]

Residential and commercial buildings account for 35-40% of total energy consumption worldwide. Commercial buildings, in particular, consume large amounts of energy related to heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, water heating, and other building systems. Efforts to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions have led to increasing deployments of energy efficiency retrofits for commercial and public buildings. According to a new report from Navigant Research, the worldwide market for energy efficiency retrofits in commercial and public buildings will grow from US$68.2 billion in 2014 to US$127.5 billion by 2023.

"Because the existing building stock dwarfs the amount of new building space being added on an annual basis, energy efficiency retrofits are a critical pathway to greening the world's commercial buildings," said Eric Bloom, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. "Enrollment in voluntary green building certification programs has been on the rise around the world, even as regulatory and policy measures in a growing number of regions provide strong support for energy efficiency retrofits."

One key question within the building retrofit industry is the initial reason or motivator for pursuing energy efficiency retrofits. The vast majority of building owners and managers who decide to complete an energy efficiency retrofit are motivated primarily by system replacements rather than the motivation to improve efficiency, the report said. Navigant Research added that it estimates approximately 15% of all energy efficiency retrofits are initiated with increasing energy efficiency as the primary motivator, while the remaining 85% of energy efficiency retrofits are initiated for other reasons.

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Commercial building energy efficiency retrofits will surpass US$127 billion in annual market value by 2023, says firm