Industrial Energy Efficiency

Industrial Energy Efficiency - Shaping Our Future

Industrial energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important in an age where fuel prices are constantly increasing and political activists are demanding that everyone conserves energy. The continuing drive to refine and improve processes so that greater quantities of product can be produced needs to be tempered by an effort to reduce the drain on energy resources. By doing this, not only can energy resources be preserved for the future, industrial processes can also become cheaper to run.

The background of the Industrial Revolution is a simple one to understand, as the constant need was to produce increasing amounts of product to satisfy demand. Even the depression parts of the economic cycle only served to slow down this increase in demand, and never to reverse or eliminate it. Machines were constantly being developed to allow each unit of labor to produce more goods in a shorter time. The use of resources, especially fuel, was scarcely considered as there were ample reserves of fossil fuels to use. People became billionaires from supplying these fuels, including some of the richest men in history. Only in recent years has the realization come that the reserves are finite and that new ways will have to be found to sustain and improve industry.

One of the most important factors in the industrial process which is often overlooked is the maintenance of conditions in the factory environment. Often, machinery being operated by large numbers of men creates excessive heat, and a cooling system is necessary to maintain production. At other times, the weather will be severely cold in northern climates and factories will need a heating system. By building factories with materials which reflect heat or cool air back into the room instead of allowing it to escape, the need for fuel use of this type can be greatly diminished.

The largest gains in industrial energy efficiency can be made by producing machinery which produces more product for less energy consumed, although there obviously limits as to how far this can be taken. Often, a factory will wait until existing machinery is in need of expensive servicing or replacement before taking the step to buy new machines. This is understandable as every commercial operation has to put its own bottom line at the top of the priority list, ahead of any environmental considerations. To persuade factory owners to upgrade their old machinery more quickly, tax incentives are sometimes given.

In the rapidly expanding data processing industry, the demand for power is even beginning to worry the suppliers. In the traditional economic model, suppliers simply want to sell as much product as possible, but in the real world they are limited by the available supply. Although we are not yet at a stage where world energy resources are about to run out, electricity suppliers are already encouraging information technology companies to switch to more energy efficient computers and data storage devices. Many of them are offering rebates to companies who lease more efficient equipment, in a bid to limit the rapidly growing demand.

The future of industrial energy efficiency will depend to a large degree on the policies of those running world governments and energy agencies, but the multi-national companies themselves will also play a significant part. Vested interests and corruption need to be set aside in a way they have often not been in the past if real progress is to be made. Companies will always have their eye on the bottom line, and it is unrealistic to expect them to do anything else. Governments and consumers will need to ensure that that bottom line benefits most from paying more attention to industrial energy efficiency.

Articles by Brad Mcclendon, author

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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