High upfront purchase costs often deter consumers from buying the most energy efficient appliances.  Well-designed incentive programs address market barriers and complement mandatory standards by accelerating market penetration of highly efficient products. 

In countries with slow-moving S&L programs, incentive programs can help jumpstart negotiations to achieve higher efficiencies and make ambitious standards politically palatable and acceptable to local manufacturers and the public.  

To better understand how incentive programs are being implemented globally, this study “A Global Review of Incentive Programs to Accelerate Energy-Efficient Appliances and Equipment” reviews and assesses incentive instruments and the regulatory frameworks that govern their development across major economies. 

Different incentive program targeting different stakeholders throughout the supply chain are assessed in this report, illustrating their advantages and disadvantages (as shown in the graph below). 

The report also demonstrates how incentives programs have greater impact when they target highly efficient technologies that have a small market share. In addition, it examines how the benefits and drawbacks of different program design aspects depend on the market barriers addressed, the target equipment, and the local market context.  The key to successful program design and implementation is a thorough understanding of the market and effective identification of the most important local factors hindering the penetration of energy-efficient technologies. 

This report was authored by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in support of the SEAD Initiative.