At a Chinese pharmaceutical company, an energy audit revealed that the cooling system was consuming over 2 million kWh per year, about 13% of the plant's electricity consumption. The plant invested $145,000 in two new pumps that utilized variable speed control and cleaned ductwork to minimize friction losses. The changes reduced electricity consumption 49% in the water cooling system and had a payback time of 1.8 years.
In the U.S., a textile company installed 15 variable speed drives on fans in the ventilation system. The new drives reduced the ventilation system's electricity demand by 59% and the $130,000 investment was recouped in 1.3 years.
These are just two examples of how smarter technology can help reduce manufacturing's contribution to global emissions, says the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) report, "SMARTer 2020," produced by the Boston Consulting Group.
See Also: Global Manufacturing Economy Trends & Analysis
The report estimates that increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) could cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 16.5% by 2020, a figure that would save $1.9 trillion in gross energy and fuel savings. That is a 16% improvement over the estimates from the "SMART 2020" report issued just four years ago. The potential reduction of 9.1 gigatons carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) is more than the current annual CO2 emissions of the U.S.
The new report acknowledges that ICT is a growing contributor to GHG emissions, with associated emissions rising from 0.53 GtCO2e in 2002 to an estimated 1.27 GtCO2e by 2020. That means ICT will produce 2.3% of global emissions by 2020. But the report estimates that fuller use of ICT would result in abating seven times that amount of emissions. Moreover, the sector has a good track record in saving energy, with savings coming from shifts such as the adoption of smartphones and tablets rather than using more energy-intensive PCs.
The study examines how ICT-enabled solutions could reduce energy consumption across six industry sectors: agriculture and land use, buildings, consumer and service, manufacturing, power and transportation. The solutions range from the adoption of cloud computing and video conferencing to smart electricity grids and intelligent building management systems.
