Page 26 - Climate Control News Magazine June 2019

Pressure is on to dump
high carbon industrial heating processes
THOUSANDS OF FACTORIES ACROSS AUSTRALIA COULD SAVE MONEY ON ENERGY TODAY, BY REPLACING THEIR GAS-FIRED BOILERS WITH INDUSTRIAL HEAT PUMPS.
Leading companies of all sizes are signing power purchase agreements to secure low-cost electricity from solar and wind, typically paying 20 to 50% less than the standard market price.
FOR MANUFACTURERS TO trans- form raw materials into everyday products they require enormous amounts of heat, which causes 8% of Australian greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change think tank, Beyond Zero Emissions’ has prepared a report showing how manufacturers can generate heat differently, through the smart use of renewable electricity.
The Electrifying Industry Report said it can power any industrial heat process and can dou- ble the efficiency of many industrial processes. The report warns that businesses wedded to high carbon strategies are at risk from the global transition to a low carbon economy.
Beyond Zero Emissions CEO, Vanessa Petrie, said Australian manufacturers are fighting a doubling of costs in gas and electricity bills by doing business as usual.
“By electrifying industrial heat processes, sup- ported by renewables, Australian manufactures can reclaim control of their energy costs and en- joy the benefits of falling renewable energy costs for years to come,” she said.
Renewable energy is cheaper and could drop a further 30 to 50 per cent in the next decade. Leading companies of all sizes are signing power purchase agreements to secure low-cost elec- tricity from solar and wind, typically paying 20 to 50% less than the standard market price.
So far, manufacturers are simply using renew- ables in place of grid electricity. But abundant, cheap renewable electricity opens up an even more far-reaching possibility: the electrification of manufacturing processes that currently rely on burning fossil fuels.
Head of Research and lead author of the report, Michael Lord, says there is a missed opportunity
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