National Top Runner Initiative for energy efficient products (NTRI)

Nearly seven million televisions are sold in Germany per year, a refrigerator can be found in more than 99 percent of the country’s approximately 40 million households – in addition, there are a number of further electric appliances that spend many hours each day connected to the network. There is an enormous potential for energy savings here, if and when as many households as possible switch to especially efficient electric appliances.

To reach this goal, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) launched the “National Top Runner Initiative” in January 2016. It is an important building block in the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NAPE), with which the German Federal Government is seeking to reduce primary energy consumption in Germany by 20 per cent below 2008 levels by 2020, and to half of 2008 levels by 2050. The NTRI intended to bring energy efficient and high-quality appliances (top runners) onto the market more quickly, thus driving their market saturation. For this purpose, motivation and competence in product-related energy efficiency was to be strengthened and expanded all along the value chain – from the appliance manufacturers to retail and through to the consumers. In this, the NTRI linked diverse aspects: On the one side, consumers receive diverse information on the opportunities and possibilities related to increasing energy efficiency. On the other, manufacturers and retailers became visible efficiency actors and multipliers, motivating them to develop and sell energy saving products.

The NTRI was implemented on behalf of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) by a consortium consisting of Edelman.ergo, the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, the Wuppertal Institute, and the Austrian Energy Agency under the leadership of adelphi. adelphi’s primary task consisted of interlocking the activities and coordinating project partners. Beyond that, adelphi was organising and overseeing the regular dialogue and knowledge exchange between NTRI stakeholders. This included the development and realisation of multiple workshops and specialist events as well as appearances at fairs and events for retailers, manufacturers, and consumers. In addition, adelphi analysed current developments in energy efficiency and compiled background materials and discussion papers.