COP30: Energy Efficiency in Industry

Recommendations

• Systematic energy mapping. Establish requirements for industry to identify and prioritise measures that improve energy utilisation and enable savings.

• Share best practices. Update and implement proven energy efficiency solutions across sectors.

• Provide financial incentives. Support the adoption of new technologies and processes that improve efficiency and reduce emissions in Norway, as well as technology development and transfer to LMIC countries.

• Ensure fair competition. Enable low-emission and energy-efficient technologies to compete with fossil alternatives and establish equal conditions for the use of different energy carriers (electricity and heat).

• Promote innovation and technology development. Prioritise research and development of new technologies and components for optimal resource use.

• Develop long-term plans and roadmaps. Establish strategies for climate-neutral industry through close collaboration between research institutions, businesses, authorities and energy companies.

Current situation

Improving energy efficiency is the first and most important step in any decarbonisation strategy. The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy that is not produced. Despite significant technological progress, the industrial sector still holds great potential for improved energy utilisation — both within production processes and through the recovery of waste heat. Industrial actors should therefore map their energy use to identify the most effective measures.

Enhanced efficiency in industrial production and new methods for recovering surplus energy are among the most effective ways to improve resource utilisation and reduce the climate footprint — nationally and globally.

Measures that enable more efficient use of waste heat bring both business and societal benefits. However, many energy-efficient technologies involve high development and investment costs. Therefore, economic incentives are needed to make long-term solutions more profitable than short-term gains.

At COP28, countries agreed that the rate of global improvement in energy efficiency must double, from 2 % to 4 % per year by 2030. The principle of “energy efficiency first” was also reaffirmed as a foundation for policy, planning and investment decisions.

The main advantage of improving industrial energy efficiency is that it increases value creation throughout the value chain by reducing energy consumption at the company level. Accordingly, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap identifies industrial energy efficiency as the first of five pillars in its strategy for decarbonising the industrial sector. Similarly, the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes in its Net Zero by 2050 report that enhanced energy efficiency is needed to reduce global energy demand by 7 % by 2030.

In Norway, the Green Industrial Transition Roadmap states that the country shall have the world’s cleanest and most energy-efficient process industry. The Energi21 Strategy identifies industrial decarbonisation, energy security and the development of new green industries as the three main challenges ahead. Reducing energy demand through higher industrial efficiency directly addresses all three.

Solution

The Norwegian Research Centre for Environmentally Friendly Energy (FME) HighEff has focused on these crucial and challenging aspects in the race toward net zero. In June 2024, SINTEF Energy, together with partners in the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), published a white paper identifying key technology gaps, barriers, R&D needs and concrete recommendations for EU policymakers.

Norway and Europe must strengthen research, innovation and industrial projects that develop energy-efficient processes, components and systems, as well as promote circular economy solutions — including industrial clusters, heat pump technologies and heat-to-power processes.

There is a strong need for technologies that can capture and utilise high-temperature waste heat so that energy can be reused in the same or other processes. This reduces both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. A key part of this effort is to ensure comprehensive oversight of resource use in industry — including raw materials, energy and water — and to comply with EU requirements for recording such data.

In Norway, the Energy Commission has set a clear ambition: energy efficiency measures should free up energy equivalent to 20 TWh per year from 2030. This corresponds to about 6–7 % of Norway’s total primary energy consumption (315 TWh in 2022, including oil and gas).

Increased industrial energy efficiency will strengthen both national and international energy security, reduce energy and product costs, and support the development of robust industrial symbioses and material circularity.