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Vacon drives ‘saved a day of global electricity output in 2012’
Published:  17 June, 2013

The Finnish drives-maker Vacon estimates that its AC drives products saved their users about 50TWh last year – the equivalent of 20 hours of global electricity production, or the annual output from nine 700MW nuclear reactors, or the annual electricity consumption of about 11 million European homes. 

In addition, the energy produced from renewable energy sources using Vacon AC converters amounted to about 20TWh in 2012. This corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of about 4.4 million homes in Europe, or about eight hours of the world's annual electrical energy production.

The payback time for AC drives has been reducing continuously as drives efficiencies improve, electricity costs rise and the prices of some drives are reduced. In some pump and fan applications, the payback time can be less than a year.

Laisi: future drives will be even more efficient

“Vacon has delivered AC drives since 1995,” says Vesa Laisi, the company’s president and CEO. “From the technological perspective, AC drives will be more energy-efficient and offer better performance in the future. Competing or substitute technical solutions do not exist for AC drives, and are not within sight.”