Photo: ABB. 
Photo: ABB.
ABB calls on governments and industry to accelerate adoption of the technology to help combat climate change, by revealing potential for energy efficiency improvements in industry and infrastructure enabled by the latest motors and variable speed drives.
According to the International Energy Agency, industry accounts for 37 per cent of global energy use and some 30 per cent of global energy is consumed in buildings.
According to ABB, a significant number of industrial electric motor-driven systems in operation today – around 300 million globally – are inefficient or consume more power than required, resulting in wasted energy.
Independent research estimates that if these systems were replaced with optimized, high-efficiency equipment, the gains to be realized could reduce global electricity consumption by up to 10 per cent. In turn, this would account for more than 40 per cent of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions needed to meet the 2040 climate goals established by the Paris agreement.
“Industrial energy efficiency, more than any other challenge, has the single greatest capacity for combatting the climate emergency. It is essentially the world’s invisible climate solution,” said Morten Wierod, President, ABB. “For ABB, sustainability is a key part of our company purpose and of the value that we create for all of our stakeholders. By far, the biggest impact we can have in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is through our leading technologies, which reduce energy use in industry, buildings and transport.”
