E4tech provides strategy analysis and support for entrepreneurial organisations, major corporations, governments and multilateral institutions. We understand how businesses develop and what problems can restrict their growth, in addition to identifying new opportunities based on deep technical understanding and broad sectoral knowledge.

Energy was subject to regulation long before the emergence of sustainability as a policy driver, but this has now created a major area of policy intervention. The scale and nature of market failures such as climate change are leading to the application of new instruments and the emergence of new markets.  These markets provide opportunities for both innovators and investors.

Support skills and mechanisms

• Market analyses: We can analyse potential markets based on a sound understanding of technology and opportunity, and suggest strategies for targeting them
• Competitor analysis: An understanding of competitor technology capability and market strengths and weaknesses is essential, and our long experience in the industries we cover gives us both breadth and depth in this area
• Business planning: Our experience in developing and reviewing business plans enables us to constructively critique and make suggestions for a range of clients. We often work with our partner company Orion Innovations to support innovative companies through the stages of growth.
• Decision making under uncertainty: We understand that the novel energy technology sector is characterised by rapidly changing boundary conditions, and we have experience in supporting decision-making processes under those circumstances
• Innovation system analysis: By assessing the functioning of a system it is possible to determine the areas where intervention is required and then to design interventions, which we have done on several engagements for policymakers and advisors.
• Strategy advice and guidance: Our understanding of technology, business principles and policy and market environments allows us to give strategic advice guided by all of these factors, set in the specific context of an individual organisation’s strengths and ambitions

Some of E4tech’s recent projects in policy:

• We have assisted the UK Government with the 2003 and 2007 Energy Reviews, providing various supporting reviews of innovation, fuels and low carbon vehicles. These have included explanations of the operation of innovation systems and identification of areas for policy intervention.
• We are often called upon by government departments to provide evaluations of technologies or markets to assist in the design of specific policies
• We have evaluated the impact of specific policies on companies or sectors, such as UK energy efficiency regulatons for a major energy supplier 
• We have worked with the UK Carbon Trust and Department for Transport to create methodologies for the measurement of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in products and transport fuels respectively

Some of E4tech’s recent projects in strategy & finance:

• We have worked with industrial companies to identify market entry strategies in areas such as natural gas vehicles and waste to energy
• We have assisted major energy companies to understand, for example, the global potential of biofuels (BP) and the prospects for hydrogen (Shell)
• We have worked for the UK Department for Trade & Industry and Carbon Trust to create national sector strategies for hydrogen and fuel cells
• We have worked with private equity investors as they decide how best to deploy capital in sectors such as bioenergy
• We have supported innovators such as CMR Fuel Cells and bioenergy start-ups with business planning and finance raising. (Please note that we are not registered financial advisors).