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Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency for Business The business value of energy efficiency
Energy efficiency is often described as the “first fuel” because the cheapest and most secure energy is the energy that is not used. For businesses, this begins with a straightforward benefit: lower energy bills. In many cases, efficiency investments can pay back quickly through reduced energy costs alone, improving margins and reducing exposure to price volatility.However, the value of energy efficiency extends beyond energy savings. By improving how equipment, buildings and processes operate, efficiency measures deliver wide-ranging benefits that strengthen business competitiveness across several dimensions: Operational benefits Efficient and electrified equipment operates more reliably and with less stress…
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Tamara Babayan
Senior Energy Specialist, World Bank.
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Salomé Zourabichvili
President. Salomé Zourabichvili took office as President of Georgia in December 2018. Ms Zourabichvili served as Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2004-2005 and was elected to its parliament in 2016. She also previously worked in the French diplomatic service and for the UN Security Council, as well as teaching at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.
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Electricity Mid-Year Update 2025 Prices: Trends in wholesale markets differ across regions
Average wholesale electricity prices in the first half of 2025 rose year-on-year in various regions, including Europe, the United States and Japan, amid higher gas prices. By contrast, countries such as India and Australia saw lower wholesale prices compared to the previous year in the face of varying demand and generation trends, among other factors. At the same time, a number of markets continued to observe an increase in the occurrence of negative electricity prices. A detailed discussion of negative electricity prices and their drivers can be found in our Electricity 2025 report. Higher gas prices put upwards…
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Luca Lo Re
International Climate and Energy Analyst. Luca Lo Re leads the IEA work in the OECD/IEA Climate Change Expert Group. With OECD colleagues, he produces papers to enhance the understanding of technical issues in international climate change negotiations and Paris Agreement implementation. In particular, his works focuses on international carbon markets (Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement). He also leads the organisation of the annual IEA-IETA-EPRI GHG Emissions Trading Workshop, and supports various works of the Agency related to Net Zero.
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Global Hydrogen Review 2025 Five key questions about hydrogen
Is the slow progress of projects derailing the hydrogen sector? Recent headlines reporting project delays, cancellations and downward revisions of ambitions for the adoption of low-emissions hydrogen, have led many to question whether the industry has hit another “hype cycle” like those in the 1970s, 1990s, and early 2000s. However, a deeper analysis reveals a different story. Despite falling short of the ambitious targets from the early 2020s, the sector is achieving remarkable milestones that demonstrate clear progress.The scale of electrolyser projects is growing fast. In 2021, the world's largest reached 30 MW. In 2025, a 500 MW project…
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Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit Industry
Introduction Industry accounts for 37% of final energy consumption globally. Doubling global energy intensity improvement by 2030 would require the decoupling of production from energy demand and raising the share of electricity in energy use from 23% in 2022 to 30% in 2030. An integrated policy approach combining regulation, information and incentives is the most effective way to achieve this goal.Regulations such as minimum energy performance standards for motors increase the efficiency of industrial processes by requiring new motors to use less energy per unit of output. This also drives the innovation of more efficient technologies. The alignment of international…
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Electricity 2026 Reliability
Largescale outages amid system instability, equipment failures and weather impacts As the Age of Electricity evolves, with steadily rising electrification rates and electricity demand, blackouts can impact a vast part of economies and social life. Outages induced by operational failures, technical error, or climate-driven events illustrate the importance of redundancy, resilience, and thorough oversight. The following list of outage incidents in 2025 underscores how ensuring the security, reliability and resilience of power systems is evolving from a technical challenge to a strategic necessity that requires unwavering attention from system operators, regulators, and policy leaders. Voltage management increasingly important for…
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- Demand
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Ivan Haščič
Senior Economist, OECD Environment Directorate.
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Ali Saffar
Head of Division for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Ali Al-Saffar is the Middle East and North Africa programme manager at the International Energy Agency, leading the IEA’s engagement with the region and acting as a key advisor to the executive management. Prior to this role, he was an energy analyst at the Directorate for Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks, where he co-authored seven editions of the IEA’s flagship long-term forecast, the World Energy Outlook.
