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Carbon Trust launches blitz on VSD and motor efficiencies

18 November, 2011

The Carbon Trust has launched a campaign to promote the energy-saving capabilities of variable speed drives and high-efficiency motors which, it says, could save UK industry more than £630m a year. It has published a pair of downloadable guides to these technologies, and is running a free online seminar on 30 November.

The Motors and Drives Technology Overview (publication CTV048) and Variable Speed drives Technology Guide (CTG070) show how businesses can make significant savings on their energy bills by adopting more efficient drive technologies. For example, a medium-sized industrial business with an electricity spend of £50,000, can save £5,000 per year by fitting VSDs and more efficient motors.

“There is a massive £640m to be saved if businesses can get their approach to motors and drives right,” says Richard Rugg, the Carbon Trust’s director of programmes. “While it’s sometimes easy to overlook, simple steps can make a big difference to energy costs. Adopting the measures outlined in these guides will have a direct impact on your business bottom line.”

The Carbon Trust guides – part of its Expert in Energy series – outline, for example, how the UK food and drink industry could save up to £70m per year by installing VSDs and more efficient motors. Other sectors such as plastics, rubber and chemicals could together save up to a further £270m annually.

The Trust has also produced an interactive online animation showing how simple changes can improve motor system efficiencies and reduce energy consumption dramatically.

The free online seminar (webinar) on 30th November will demonstrate how to cut running costs significantly and improve the efficiency of motors and drives.

In a separate move, the Carbon Trust has set up a business to help UK companies to cut their energy costs and install greener, more efficient technologies. The business, called Carbon Trust Implementation Services, is intended to provide independent, objective evaluations of the most effective energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies for a company, and to help choose trusted, accredited suppliers to do the work. It is funded by a flat-rate commission on suppliers, so there is no cost to users.

“Over the past ten years, the Carbon Trust has helped thousands of organisations implement simple, but effective, energy efficiency measures which have paid for themselves within a few years,” says Carbon Trust chief executive, Tom Delay. “We know many more companies are concerned about rising energy costs and want to act, but they need help.

“The new business,” he continues, “will help unlock £9bn of investment into energy-efficient equipment. We are confident that our new business will catalyse organisations to take action and in turn benefit from implementing cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and help the UK capitalise on green growth.”

A recent Carbon Trust survey revealed that 76% of UK companies are more concerned by rising energy costs than they were six months ago. More than half expect energy prices to rise by at least 11% over the coming three years.

The survey found that while companies recognise the opportunity to improve energy efficiency, they are held back by three barriers: insufficient time or resources; an inability to quantify the expected returns; and energy efficiency being a lower priority than other business considerations. The Carbon Trust says that the new company will help to overcome these barriers.

The new service will run alongside the Energy Efficiency Financing scheme that the Carbon Trust and Siemens Financial Services (SFS) launched in April 2011 to provide UK businesses with green equipment finance worth up to £550m over three years. Under this scheme, SFS provides the financial backing and the Carbon Trust uses its expertise in energy-efficient technologies to assess the carbon, energy and cost savings of any application. This enables the financing to pay for itself through energy savings, resulting in no net cost to the customer.

The Carbon Trust is a not-for-profit company with the mission to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy, providing specialist support to business and the public sector to help cut carbon emissions, save energy and commercialise low-carbon technologies.

For further advice on energy saving and reducing carbon emissions, the Carbon Trust runs an advice line on 0800 085 2005.




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