Do energy audits help SMEs to realize energy-efficiency opportunities?

This paper contributes to the understanding of the determinants of energy audits and to the role of energy audits in promoting energy-efficiency measures in SMEs. It benefits from the data collected within the European Investment Bank Surveys in 2017 and 2018, involving information about energy audits and energy-efficiency investments of some 12,500 signatures from EU28 Member States per year. Our analysis suggests that the decision of firms to conduct an energy audit is driven mainly by their characteristics, such as size, productivity, capital intensity, sector affiliation, and national policies regarding the transposition of relevant EU legislation and policy incentives. Furthermore, our findings indicate that energy audits besides being the first step in realizing energy-efficiency opportunities, most likely lead to the adoption of their recommendations. This is consistent with the view that energy audit is a useful tool in overcoming the information barriers and facilitating investments in energy-efficiency measures (EEMs). In fact, their information is more crucial for small firms and for investments in support processes such as lighting, wall insulation etc. than in production processes such as replacement of machinery and equipment. We also find that the likelihood of investments in EEMs, especially after an energy audit, is higher when combined with external financing and for innovative firms.