March 26, 2015 - Because motor drivers regulate motors so precisely, and because motors are the major consumers of energy produced for industry, the installed base of drives save energy and keep CO2 emissions out of our Earth's atmosphere in dramatic proportions.
ABB just tallied what the company's drives saved the globe in 2014, for example. In energy consumption, the installed base saved 445 TWh (terawatt-hours), which is equivalent to what 110 million households use in energy, when each home consumes, on average, 4,000 kWh annually - an average for 2005, the year for which the latest statistics are available.
If that amount of energy would have been generated by fossil-fuel-powered electricity plants, these drives reduced CO2 emissions by 370 million tons. Variable speed drives regulate the speed of a motor and can reduce energy consumption by as much as 30% to 50% in many applications and, in extreme cases, by as much as by 90%. Pumps are one of the most common motor applications and offer the biggest potential for saving energy because, at half the speed, only one-eighth of the power is needed.
Most motors around the globe still are awaiting control via a drive, and most are controlled with mechanical braking/speed devices, rather than electronic control.
