This study investigates the energy efficiency (EE) gap, referring to private agents who are not making seemingly profitable investments to reduce energy use. We deploy a questionnaire among firms in The Netherlands in which we ask them about investment behavior and barriers to investing in EE. A set of 16 barriers is constructed based on the literature. We find that most firms (70%) have made EE investments in the past five years, and that the median firm has saved 10% of its energy use. The remaining profitable EE investment opportunities still leave room for another 15% of energy savings at the median firm. We find that uncertainty about future policies ranks as the leading barrier to EE investments, followed by lock-ins in current equipment, and energy price uncertainty. Especially energy-intensive firms indicate the importance of policy uncertainty. Additionally, we find that a firm’s network can be an important channel for obtaining EE investment knowledge.

中文翻译：

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能源效率差距和投资障碍：来自荷兰公司调查的证据

本研究调查了能源效率 (EE) 差距，指的是那些没有进行看似有利可图的投资来减少能源使用的私人机构。我们在荷兰的公司中部署了一份调查问卷，询问他们的投资行为和投资电子电气的障碍。根据文献构建了一组 16 个障碍。我们发现大多数公司 (70%) 在过去五年中进行了节能投资，中位数的公司节省了 10% 的能源使用。剩余的有利可图的 EE 投资机会仍为中位数企业另外节省 15% 的能源留下了空间。我们发现，未来政策的不确定性是能源投资的主要障碍，其次是当前设备的锁定和能源价格的不确定性。尤其是能源密集型企业表明了政策不确定性的重要性。此外，我们发现公司的网络可以成为获取EE投资知识的重要渠道。