Despite research showing that Europe has reduced its energy use by almost 30% over the last two decades, and could cut 70% of its remaining natural gas demand by 2040, a Danish engineering and manufacturing firm with operations in more than a dozen countries is still seeing a gap in the way energy efficiency is seen and adopted, compared to new sources of energy supply.<\/p>\n
The shift to electrification has helped Danfoss Climate Solutions\u2019 business in heating, refrigeration, power systems, and industrial automation, said company president Kristian Strand.<\/p>\n
But \u201cwe still have this challenge today that energy efficiency is not looked at the same way as energy supply,\u201d Strand told The Energy Mix in a feature interview on the sidelines of the International Energy Agency\u2019s (IEA) recent energy efficiency conference<\/a> in Montreal.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of focus on how to supply energy, but not really on how to use it more efficiently, which is a bit of a paradox,\u201d he added. \u201cIf you think about one kilowatt saved, it\u2019s totally immune to any price [change], any supply disruption. So it\u2019s actually a very smart way to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n During the conference, Danfoss cited<\/a> new research by Oxford University energy and climate policy professor Jan Rosenow, showing that Europe has already cut its energy consumption by nearly 30%, and could reduce its remaining gas demand 70% by 2040 through a mix of energy efficiency, electrification, and clean energy adoption. Those moves would save the continent up to \u20ac2 trillion (C$3.22 trillion) on fossil fuel imports.<\/p>\n But to tap into those gains, countries will have to \u201cscale up and really get traction\u201d on projects that aren\u2019t often as high on investors\u2019 radar, and can stumble on the need for cooperation between public sector grids and private businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look at reduce, then we look at reuse, and then we look at reset,\u201d Strand said, adding that Danfoss applied the same principle to its own targets for carbon neutrality by 2030 and net-zero carbon by 2050. \u201cWe cannot go and advocate for this if we don\u2019t show the way,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s the main value proposition that we\u2019re offering the market.\u201d And \u201cenergy efficiency is very important for us to reach our own target for decarbonization.\u201d<\/p>\n He cited one project in a Danish supermarket that reduced energy consumption by 63%.<\/p>\n Data Centres Can Help Utilities<\/p>\n The same practices can apply in data centres, where concern about energy consumption and a host of other local impacts have been supercharging public opposition<\/a> across North America<\/a> and beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the same opportunities there to do peak shaving<\/a>, to leverage the load and the excess heat,\u201d he said. But \u201csomebody has to put the requirements to the data centres, the centre has to agree to it, and somebody needs to take the excess heat from the data centre.\u201d<\/p>\n Danfoss is already doing that for its data centre customers, predominantly in the United States, with a highly efficient, fossil-free, high-RPM centrifugal compressor \u201cthat has become a kind of de facto standard\u201d for the industry, Strand said. Scaling up on that potential from theory to practice begins with legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody needs to put an energy efficiency requirement to the data centre, the building, or the supermarket,\u201d he said, while making the case that the incremental costs will be manageable\u2014especially with buildings that can use artificial intelligence to learn their occupants\u2019 usage patterns.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Different for Energy Importers<\/p>\n In contrast to North America, where the natural gas lobby can often be seen<\/a> trying to stymie local electrification and efficiency measures<\/a>, Strand said Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 focused European governments\u2019 attention on energy resilience.<\/p>\n \u201cWe import a lot of fossil fuels,\u201d he said, so \u201cwhat holds us back is more the fear that costs will go up\u201d as a result of energy efficiency projects. Building codes are still often subject to last-minute changes at the national level after they\u2019ve been enacted by the European Commission, even though \u201cthis is actually an opportunity to be very competitive and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to payback times on efficiency investments, \u201cseeing is believing,\u201d he said, and \u201cI think that\u2019s the most frustrating thing. I could understand [the resistance] if it were super expensive. But it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n With high or volatile gas prices as the motivator, and subsidies sometimes available, Strand said heat pump sales have been booming in Europe, as homes and businesses convert to more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.<\/p>\n Danfoss has also been diversifying its production and supply chains across the globe\u2014particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014with a research centre in Tallahassee, Florida, and a large production footprint in Mexico. The new strategy is to boost the company\u2019s resilience by ensuring that all its products are manufactured on at least two continents.<\/p>\n Growth Potential in Canada<\/p>\n With about 40 staff in Canada, $200 million in annual turnover, and no manufacturing capacity, Strand said he sees lots of potential for growth, based on the size of the economy and the country\u2019s industrial capacity. \u201cThe technologies we offer can fit well into a market like Canada, where there is a need to build awareness on what we can use all of that waste heat for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Canada is also an attractive location for local supply, particularly in today\u2019s international trade environment. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to ship from our warehouse in the United States and then incur a tariff on it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s driving us to be more flexible in our approach and set up more resilient supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n Danfoss is also on the lookout for data centres in Canada that are open to optimizing their efficiency\u2014as long as the solution is electric.<\/p>\n \u201cIt depends on the customer,\u201d Strand said. \u201cWe don\u2019t offer gas generators,\u201d but \u201cthere are grid technologies now where you go to 800-volt DC directly into the data centre so that it\u2019s more energy-efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n Notwithstanding the fear or perception that data centre development will continue to swamp existing power grids, he said there\u2019s great potential to adjust temperatures and shift loads, including the large language model learning that is so energy-intensive, to off-peak hours. Global data centre operators can also shift tasks across regions to avoid periods of high demand.<\/p>\n There are technologies for peak-shaving and it\u2019s very interesting, because you don\u2019t need the data centre to flexible for more than 1% of the time to actually be able to deploy all the data centres that are planned through 2030,\u201d Strand told The Mix. \u201cIt isn\u2019t simple, but there are ways to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n And once those systems are in place, \u201csuddenly it\u2019s like having a big electrical battery sitting on your grid,\u201d with a data centre showing up in power system modelling like \u201ca 60-gigawatt [capacity resource] that you can flip on and off.\u201d<\/p>\n Energy Efficiency Investment Needs Certainty<\/p>\n But scaling up energy efficiency investment and deployment will depend on longer-term certainty for the industry, Strand said. That begins with governments sticking to the codes and standards they adopt and enforcing them, even if they\u2019re worried about short-term impacts in an economic downturn.<\/p>\n Those decisions will get easier as more people get to see the benefits of energy efficiency first hand.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about building understanding,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can [show results] in a building here or a hospital there. But we need some way to scale it and put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n As an example, he cited Danfoss\u2019 industrial hub in S\u00f8nderborg, Germany, population 80,000, where the company and the municipality have been working for more than a decade on an action plan to make the region energy neutral by 2029. The IEA recognized S\u00f8nderborg\u2019s work, he said, when it chose the community to host its annual energy efficiency conference in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re well on the way, and we\u2019re going to achieve it,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s working on it,\u201d and the community hasn\u2019t seen a decline in quality of life or a major increase in costs.<\/p>\n The changes have been gradual, with retailers changing out light bulbs and getting heat pumps, local buses and ferries electrifying, and the district energy system expanding to take advantage of waste heat from the company\u2019s operations. The plan is working because it began with everyone\u2014the municipality, the company, and the public\u2014developing a long-term strategy together.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone agreed from the beginning and kept to what was agreed,\u201d said Kasper Elbj\u00f8rn, Danfoss\u2019 senior vice-president of communications and public affairs. In contrast, \u201cif you go with these back-and-forth, stop-and-go policies, you can\u2019t do it.\u201d For companies to know that it\u2019s safe to invest, \u201cyou need to set a long-term plan and stick to it, even when it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite research showing that Europe has reduced its energy use by almost 30% over the last two decades,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4554,17,6935,23465],"class_list":["post-128666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-byline-internal","tag-canada","tag-dow","tag-scf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}