Energy Efficiency Improvement in Iran: Policy documents and Barriers in the Building Sector

Economic development, population growth and enhancement of living standards in Iran over the past decade have led to significant uplift in energy consumption in various sectors including the building sector. As reported by various centers, the prolongation of this trend will lead to equality in energy supply and demand in less than ten years and the country will then become an energy importing one. Although the implementation of energy efficiency refinement is far from the existing potential, the country has witnessed invaluable activities towards this objective by relevant institutions in the past two decades. Implementation of energy efficiency improvement is the target of this research, where lack of economic and financial incentives is evident in taking this issue forward. In addition, major barriers in the way of energy efficiency improvement are discussed in this work.
It is important to note that deficiencies in the administrative system, energy efficiency market provisions and low prices of energy carriers are the major barriers on the path of energy efficiency improvement. Finally, given the policy-makings and barriers present, a number of long-term and short-term solutions are proposed.