Why industrial energy saving?

The primary energy use in the Netherlands, excluding feedstock amounts to approximately 2500 PJ. The subdivison of this energy throughout the end-use sector is depicted below.

One of the largest contributors to this is industry (30%). Five industrial sectors account for 85 % of the total industrial energy use. These are the base chemical industry, the base metal industry, food and drug industry, paper and board industry and building materials, see below.

Especially since 1990 large energy savings have been achieved in industry. The measures that have been taken comprise of improved energy management, optimalisation of existing processes, introduction of new technologies and implementation of combined heat and power stations. Despite of all these efforts, the total energy use is still increasing by the growth of the economy.

Most of the industrial energy use is needed to supply heat for steam systems or for firing furnaces. This Sankey diagram shows the contribution of heat, power and feedstock to the total industrial energy use in 2000 in the Netherlands.

In order to sustain the rate at which energy efficiency is improved new technology and system innovations are necessary. These should lead to drastic improvement in energy efficiency in the energy intensive industry. In addition to the increase in energy efficiency other factors play an important role. Improvement of product quality, new installations and products and strengthening of competitiveness by cost reduction and technological advancement are perhaps even more important.