Energy efficiency potential for stimulus to Malta’s economy
At a conference held at The Exchange Buildings in Valletta, business representative entities The Malta Business Bureau and the Malta Chamber, outlined their two-year commitment, through the Investing in Energy Project and in partnership with The Energy and Water Agency, to foster an energy performance culture amongst SMEs in Malta.
Minister Joe Mizzi, Minister for Energy and Water, opened the conference stating “the cheapest form of energy is that which is not consumed. The Energy and Water Agency within the Ministry for Energy and Water Management is not only launching incentive schemes for energy efficiency measures but also creating the necessary awareness to drive investment in this area, and to make sure that all enterprises include energy auditing and energy efficiency measures in their investment plans. It is essential that enterprises go beyond investments in renewable energy and concentrate more efforts on energy efficiency.”
Addressing attendees, Frank V. Farrugia, President of The Malta Chamber, explained “we believe that by mobilising and empowering businesses to act on energy performance, climate change can be countered, the economy can be stimulated, and social opportunities can be unlocked.”
Dr Miriam Dalli, MEP, highlighted part of the EU vision “a clean energy economy will provide an opportunity to ordinary people to earn more money and it will also provide the chance to others to save money through conservation and energy efficiency. The positive significant impacts we can gain by moving towards energy efficiency and transforming our transporta- tion system are there for us to achieve.”
Presenting at the event, MBB Investing in Energy Project Manager Geoffrey Saliba outlined four key actions the project will take with businesses. These include offering energy audits, technical training workshops for staff, a B2B programme through which best practice businesses will coach relevant businesses interested in replicating their best practice, and economic studies aimed at guiding businesses and energy auditors. The project was launched in December 2016 and will run until November 2018.
Highlighting the opportunities energy efficiency presents, economist Bernard Mallia gave insights into the first such study by the Investing in Energy Project. This showed that a sample of 20 of Malta’s largest companies, which had undergone extensive energy audits as part of the Energy Efficiency Directive compliance, have invested just over EUR 6.4 million in energy efficiency measures over the coming two years. The investment has resulted in savings of over EUR 1 million per annum.
The conference also featured presentations by ISO auditing trainer Ing. Joe Caruana, on what energy auditing entails, and from The Energy and Water Agency Senior Policy Officer Ing. Charles Buttigieg, on the authority’s experience with regards to industry’s energy auditing in Malta. Best practice case studies were also presented by representative of Altern Ltd., MCAST, RECA Plast from Italy, and Philibert Savours from France.
Highlighting the project’s objective of bringing about real, tangible and measured change, conference host Joe Tanti, CEO of lead partner The MBB, stated that the project aims to encourage around 30% of targeted Medium sized companies within manufacturing, wholesale, retail and import sectors, to take up energy audits. Of these, the project aims for around 50% to take up energy performance recommendations.
The conference presentations will be uploaded to the project website http://mbb.org.mt/category/proj ects/ ongoing/ i nvesting- i nenergy/
The Investing in Energy Project is run by the Malta Business Bureau in partnership with The Energy and Water Agency and The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, with co-financing from the Regulator for Energy and Water Services and the Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business.