The EU has imposed tough requirements on energy efficiency and reductions in
CO2 emissions, but the simple fact is that these demands could already be met by using existing, well-proven technology.
Politicians often urge industry to be innovative and to come up with strategic, long-term solutions to save energy and cut CO2 emissions. I, and many other leaders in industry, agree with this because we are equally concerned, both personally and professionally. But I wonder why it is that the politicians seldom ask industry: What do you have to offer already that can help now?
Even though there are several recent initiatives for long-term energy reduction, such as wind
turbine installations, it is imperative that quick, effective and eco-friendly CO2 reduction methods are not overlooked.
Huge Impact
It’s argued that perhaps only 10 or 15% of all installed AC motors in Europe are controlled by
frequency converters, but the exact percentage is immaterial to my argument. The fact is that raising the percentage to, say, 30% (the more, the stronger my argument), particularly where they’re driving fans and pumps, would have a huge impact on energy consumption and CO2 emissions – now. And – speaking for the whole drives industry – we can deliver! In 2010, drives installed worldwide by Danfoss alone cut CO2 emissions by more than 33 million tonnes.
Our company has been in the drives business for more than 40 years, and we really know about drives and their potential for saving businesses time and money, while being ecologically responsible, without long lead times or complicated installation.
Immediate Energy Optimisation
Drives are one of the best industrial contributors available for immediate energy optimisation and CO2 reduction, and they are simple to install and commission. If, for example, you consider a city where the water consumption is at maximum capacity in the morning, then slows down during the day, and back up again as people return home.
By applying drives, those peaks and troughs can be reflected more accurately in the operation of pumps and no extraneous energy wasted. The same principle applied to all motors installed by industry only amplifies the logic.
Solution Ready
I urge politicians worldwide to mandate that AC motors should be equipped with frequency
converters to a much higher degree than currently. This would not only reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, but it would also support the political agenda by creating green jobs worldwide in production, product development, administration, sales and so on.
At Danfoss, we term our drives “solution ready”. They are easy to install – they just have to be mounted beside the AC motor and connected, then they’re up-and-running and saving energy and CO2 emissions immediately. We pre-programme the drives to make this as simple as possible, although customers can programme them themselves to deliver a more sophisticated solution tailored to their application.
Frequency converters are energy reduction made easy.