Energy service companies to improve energy efficiency in China: barriers and removal measures

Since China became the second largest energy consumer and carbon dioxide emitter, Chinese government has put high emphasis on the problem of energy consumption and environmental pollution, and has put the project of energy conservation and emission reducing into practice. Energy service companies (ESCOs), a market oriented mechanism by energy performance contracting (EPC) to improve energy efficiency, had successful experiences in developed countries such as USA and Canada, and developing countries such as South Korea. ESCOs are in nascent stage in China and face several barriers that include market, finance, institutional, technology, risk control, educational and dissemination barriers, and poor energy pricing policies, high transaction costs problems etc. Thus, a series of corresponding countermeasures should be taken effectively to remove these barriers for promoting ESCOs to improve energy efficiency by energy performance contracting (EPC) in China in favor of Chinese economy kept going sustainably.