Enhancing energy audits schemes in Energy Intensive Industries with practical approaches

2026-07-22

In a context of continuously increase of fuel prices, energy efficiency (EE) has been highlighted for several EU strategic plans as key for maintaining EU’s competitive edge. However, industry doesn’t perceive EE as a critical factor for business sustainability due to lack of knowledge and prioritization of resources. Industry represents 25,6% of the EU final energy consumption and 50% of that energy is demanded by Energy Intensive Industries (EII). LIFE AUDIT-PLUS goal is to set up and manage multi-actor local groups at EU level to act as a sole intermediary for 82 EII facing the implementation of EE measures after an energy audit (and achieve with it 303GWh/year of Final Energy Savings). The project focuses, firstly, on Castellon’s ceramic sector (Spain), where cogeneration with Natural Gas is critical. The increase of Natural Gas and CO2 costs is taking companies to put their employees in RTER. Synergies with the ceramic sector can be found in the pharmaceutical and food processing sectors, where cogeneration is also key. The project focuses, secondly, on Cork, where 7 out of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies are located, and in Galicia (Spain) and Poland as 2 of the 8 EU economies more relevant in the food processing sector. The consortium is composed by not-for-profit industrial-led research organizations and consulting and engineering companies that will: address and discuss EII’s energy efficiency levers of change and identify sensitivities and synergies in the business environment, transform available technical and regulatory knowledge into useful content for EII (i.e. transforming it into a formal proposal for monitoring and follow-up after audit measures implementation), and accompany EII in any stage of the EE measure implementation by providing 9-month free of charge period service. In the next 5 years after the project ends, 217 companies will receive support from LIFE AUDIT-PLUS.

Ireland

2026-03-01