The final report of the QualitEE project is now out !
It summarises the documents and deliverables written and published during the project’s lifetime, including an updated analysis of EPCs and ESCs European markets and a description of the work done on national quality assurance schemes in each country covered by the project.
The report also draws conclusions on the project:
- Traceable quality is a push factor for EES market growth
The project has indeed shown that quality assurance schemes for EES services on the one hand and EES providers on the other hand, offer a tool to the clients to distinguish good quality projects. Therefore, the document reports a clear expectation of all market participants that quality assurance schemes would positively influence the development of EES markets.
- Quality in EES projects can be clearly defined
The project has also proved that the overall definition of a “good” EES project is very stable and can be well described by QualitEE’s Technical Quality Criteria. The usefulness of the Technical Quality Criteria has been confirmed in a large number of pilot applications, as they help to shape the relationship between the EES provider and the EES client.
- Reliable and verifiable quality criteria are useful for financing of EES projects
The Financial Quality Criteria that have been developed by QualitEE partners were perceived by market stakeholders as “common sense approach” to evaluate the financial sustainability of EES projects without requiring a full technical due diligence.
- Heterogeneous quality assurance schemes reflect local peculiarities of EES business
The report concludes that the heterogeneity of the quality assurance schemes reflects the fact that EES business is a local one, and although closely related there exist local peculiarities that decide upon the development of quality assurance schemes.
- Quality assurance schemes for EES require public support
Finally, the project allowed to conclude that a certain public support is required in the starting phase to ensure that quality assurance schemes arrive at the markets. The public support may consist of a wide range of different support measures: dissemination with public support (e.g. as part of a public programme); quality assurance may become a prerequisite of public tenders; or a public authority may take over sponsorship for a quality assurance scheme, etc.
The countries where QualitEE’s partners were not able to bring forward a quality assurance scheme clearly demonstrate that an exclusively market-based approach has limited chance of succeeding.