News

Publication date: 9 March 2016

ENERGIES 2050, France’s national leader of the consortium Trust EPC South, held the first meeting of the French national discussion platform in the 8^th of March in Villeneuve-Loubet, Alpes-Maritimes.

The purpose of this meeting was to bring together key stakeholders of the EPC market and of the tertiary sector in France and foster the dialogue and synergies amongst them. The participants were: Caisse des Dépots et Consignation (CDC), Exterimmo, Cash Alimentaire du Sud-Est, Hôtel Grand Capelet, Green Yellow, Ergelis, EPSM de la Sarthe, AEW/Green Rating Alliance and Solener. The local chamber of Commerce could not be present on that date but is part of the NDP.

During this meeting, the findings of the market report conducted by ENERGIES 2050 were discussed; the main barriers to EPC market development in the tertiary sector as well as the potential solutions to be implemented were particularly debated.

To correctly evaluate barriers and solutions, nearly 40 interviews were performed by ENERGIES 2050 with relevant stakeholders in the last few months. The lack of trust, both towards the business model and EPC providers, the costs and complexity of EPCs compared to other contracts, the low costs of electricity, the current economic situation, the lack of knowledge of the business model specifics in tertiary sector and financial institution stakeholders, the issues between landlords and renters, as well as the lack of adaptation of EPC models to individual companies of the private tertiary sector were highlighted.

Amongst the possible solutions that were discussed: emphasis on assets’ values and labels; contracts with mandatory results; training and raising awareness programmes, coupled with exhibition of best practices; guarantee funds at European levels to mitigate the risks; simplified processes; involvement of insurances and innovative funding solutions.

It was stressed that challenges for Trust EPC South are high, knowing that already existing programmes did not bring expected benefits so far. Lessons learned from these programmes will be used to advance on EPC market development.

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