Beyond zero
February 23rd 2007 Two years ago, Swedish manufacturer, SKF launched BeyondZero, an initiative in which it pledged that the energy savings provided by its products and solutions would be greater than its own energy consumption. It pledged, not just to be carbon neutral, but to be carbon positive.
As part of this pledge, SKF introduced a new family of bearings that can reduce energy consumption by at least 30%.
Bearings may not be the most obvious place to find energy savings but consider the savings they can achieve: If all the bearings in the gearboxes of all the wind turbines operating in the world at the end of 2006 could be replaced by SKF's Energy Efficient tapered roller bearings they would generate an estimated extra 770 million kWh per year. That is equivalent to the total energy consumption of 1 million Swedish households for one month.
Another example is at the EC parliament building in Brussels where SKF electromechanical actuators and control units allow self regulating sunblind systems to reduce consumption by 30-35% in the winter and 50% in the Summer.
The energy reduction is part of the consumption by the building’s HVAC system and can reduce HVAC costs by an average of 40% per year. Considering that HVAC systems consume one third of the energy use in office buildings, the savings are quite significant. Typical savings for a 100,000 sq.m building have been estimated at 2.7 million kWh per year. That is the equivalent of the total energy consumption of 3,300 Swedish homes for one month.
Within its own facilities, SKF has undertaken a series of activities to continually save energy. From changing windows, improving insulation, detecting leaks of compressed air in piping systems, more efficient heating and ventilation, to new technologies for heat treatment and grinding, changing to green energy.
For further information, just  click here. More articles from SKF (UK) Limited (9521L,UK1): | 
