May 4, 2009 A new review of 20 facilities by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) finds much room for improvement, noting that they are “spectacularly inefficient.”
The companies with the most to gain by improving energy efficiencies are the modern industries, like semiconductor manufacturers. High-tech industries use up to one million times more energy, pound-per-pound of output, than do traditional manufacturers, according to the MIT study.
“The seemingly extravagant use of materials and energy resources by many new manufacturing processes is alarming,” says the study’s author, Timothy Gutowski.
The solar power industry gets a thumbs down from Gutowski for its energy consumption. He warns energy usage by solar panel makers is so inefficient that it undermines the point of trying to make these products when you conduct a lifecycle energy balance on them.
In another example, Gutowski says energy-saving opportunities lie ahead for new coating operations that use vapor phase processing. This technique currently relies on vaporizing material in a vacuum chamber to coat surfaces. This may be efficient from a coating point of view as long as energy costs are low. But as energy prices rise, processors may want to work on liquid processing alternatives that don’t demand as much energy.
For more information, see the MIT Web site.
