The optimal course to address mounting industrial sector concerns over energy costs and climate change issues is to chart a path toward improved industrial energy efficiency. A new report from the Energy Efficiency Movement, a global forum founded by ABB and now involving about 200 organizations, outlines 10 actions that a business can take to enhance energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and lower emissions.

“Energy efficiency is a win-win for companies and the climate,” said Kevin Lane, senior program manager, energy efficiency, with the International Energy Agency (IEA). “While industry needs to address climate change on all fronts — such as increasing use of renewable energy, investing in low-carbon processes and developing circular business models — energy efficiency stands out as the business-focused opportunity with the best near-term prospects for emission reductions. The 10 actions contained in this report are known, cost-effective resources, and can be employed at scale rapidly to help companies convert climate ambition into action.”

The industrial sector is the world’s largest consumer of electricity, natural gas and coal, and was responsible for 9 gigatons of carbon dioxide, equal to 45% of total direct emissions from end-use sectors in 2021. Recommendations for defusing the energy efficiency-environmental dilemma range from carrying out energy audits to optimally sizing industrial machines that are often too big for the job specified, which wastes energy. Moving data from on-site servers and into the cloud could help save around 90% percent of the energy consumed by information technology systems. Speeding up the transition from fossil fuels by electrifying industrial fleets, switching gas boilers to heat pumps or using well-maintained heat exchangers is also advocated.

Variable speed drives can improve the energy efficiency of a motor-driven system by up to 30%, yielding immediate cost and emissions benefits. If the more than 300 million industrial electric motor-driven systems currently in operation were replaced with optimized, high-efficiency motors, global electricity consumption could be cut by up to 10%.

Access the Energy Efficiency Movement industrial energy efficiency playbook to learn about additional recommended actions.

To contact the author of this article, email shimmelstein@globalspec.com