Area Development: Electrification of Industrial Processes

As the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels to lessen climate-warming carbon emissions grows in urgency, electric vehicles have gotten most of the media and public attention. But there is also largely untapped potential to reduce fossil fuel use in the sector that consumes more energy than any other: industrial processes.

Globally, industry (all of the companies involved in manufacturing and the production of physical goods) consumes more energy than any other sector: 149 million terajoules in 2017, according to a recent report from McKinsey. Relatively little of that energy consisted of electricity: about 20 percent. Most of the electricity consumed by industry is used to power equipment such as pumps, robotic arms, and conveyor belts, the report says. As the prices of renewable electricity and electric equipment continue to drop, industrial companies can capture cost-saving and GHG-emission-reduction opportunities by planning the electrification of their operations.

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