Taking a closer look at technical energy efficiency potentials using an integrated bottom up and top-down model for the German tertiary sector: results and calibration issues

Germany’s tertiary sector accounts for 15 % of the country’s total energy consumption. To achieve international climate goals, greenhouse gas savings must be achieved in all sectors including the tertiary one. Energy efficiency remains particu larly important for this. Identifying energy efficiency poten tials helps to show how processes, products and services can be made more energy efficient and thus save energy. Different energy efficiency potentials can be achieved through techni cal and economic energy saving opportunities. Although there have been studies on energy efficiency potentials in the past, the tertiary sector with its sectoral aggregate is still a lit tle considered area. For this purpose, different specific energy applications of the German tertiary sector are analysed in this paper using an integrated bottom-up and top-down approach. One key factor here is the required calibration of the calculated bottom-up values to the top-down data. This paper aims to contribute to a more detailed knowledge of the special char acteristics of the calibration and to the different methodologi cal approaches to include technical energy efficiency measures to the top-down and bottom-up model. This yields insights into future energy saving potentials but also underlines how dependent energy efficiency potential calculations can be on the input data and methodological choice. Depending on the savings potential, the assessment may vary according to the method used. It is therefore important to understand how the calculation works.