Energy is one of the major inputs of any production process in manufacturing. Given fluctuations in global oil market prices, energy costs can quickly reach a critical level. The good news is: Your enterprise may well be able to reduce its energy consumption without cutting down on output/production quantity.
Energy efficiency is a systematic approach to utilize the available energy smartly and with minimal wastage, by substituting older, more energy-consuming appliances with more efficient ones, from lighting and air-conditioning to motors and boilers. This saves cost for the business practicing EE – as well as for the provider or supplier of energy, as new investments in infrastructure can be delayed if demand from industry remains low.
For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature.
Installing LED lighting, fluorescent lighting, or natural skylight windows reduces the amount of energy required to attain the same level of illumination compared to using traditional incandescent light bulbs.
The objective of energy efficiency is to allow an organization to consume less energy to produce the same level of outputs. This process helps companies to invest less in the operation costs of energy.
The major two benefits of energy efficiency practices are:
Environmental: Increased efficiency can lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and those of other pollutants, as well as decrease water use. (This may also help the organization comply with environmental regulation, e.g. on water or energy efficiency or carbon mitigation.)
Economic: Improving energy efficiency can lower individual utility bills, create jobs, and help stabilize electricity prices and volatility.
For individual companies this will lead to financial savings – factories that operate more efficiently have a reduced energy demand. That means lower operating costs. Additionally, these companies will have a reduced carbon footprint – by generating less energy, the factory emit fewer greenhouse gases.
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