Analysis of ESCO activities using country indicators

Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) are private-sector instruments that offer energy-/emission-improvement (energy saving, energy efficiency, energy conservation and emission reduction) projects, or renewable-energy projects, in the developed and in some developing countries. There has been an increased interest for the provision of such energy services, driven by a restructuring of the gas and electricity sectors, and the push to mainstream sustainable forms of energy into the market. ESCOs are destined to deliver sustainable-energy solutions, especially in emerging markets. Literature reveals that energy/emission improvements of countries may be related to their innovation- and R&D-activity levels. In this work, we use a literature data on the activities and the sectors targeted by ESCOs in 38 countries, summarized in terms of the age of ESCO market (AEM), number of ESCO companies (NE), and total value of ESCO projects (VE). Along with the Global Innovation Index (GII) data of the countries, we investigate the relationships among the ESCO Indicators (EIs: AEM, NE, VE, sectors targeted by ESCOs), and the Country Indicators (CIs: GII and per-capita GDP, energy consumption, CO2 emission). We observe noteworthy dependencies between the EIs and CIs. Using the simple trend equations we estimate the missing VEs in the original data. We also project, as a hint for the size and orientation of the upcoming Turkish ESCO market, the set of EIs and the distribution of the sectors that are likely to be targeted by ESCOs in Turkey.