Transparency and efficiency innovations can transform industrial climate action and cut energy bills
04/07/2025 ABB Limited (Zurich)
By David Bjerhag, Global Business Line Manager High-Speed Synchronous, ABB
Sustainability in the industrial sector has moved from a long-term goal to an immediate operational priority, requiring bold, decisive action to minimise environmental impact.
While access to clean energy is critical, conserving it is even more so - especially as inefficiency represents a significant and avoidable source of emissions. This is particularly relevant when examining large electric motors - those drawing more than 375 kilowatts (kW) of power. Despite representing only 0.03% of motors globally, they consume over a quarter of the electricity used by motors and represent 10 percent of total global power consumption.
Recognising this, end-user businesses are increasingly integrating sustainability into their core strategy. Driven in part by intensified pressure from customers, businesses are deepening their investments in energy efficiency. This priority also extends to energy-efficient motors, with 88% of businesses now considering transparency documentation like environmental product declarations (EPDs) in their procurement processes. EPDs offer independently verified, standardised data on a product’s environmental impacts across its lifecycle.
To support this shift toward sustainable industrial design, ABB has set a new industry benchmark by releasing the first ISO 14025:2006 Type III-compliant EPD for large electric motors. This applies to our AMS 1120 synchronous motors, widely used in sectors such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), petrochemical, and air separation processes in chemical and metal production.
A critical insight from EPD findings
Data from the EPD produced for the AMS motor series reveals a striking insight: 99.99% of CO? emissions occur during the motor's use phase - not in production or installation. This underlines the decisive role of motor efficiency and the carbon intensity of electricity supply in driving emissions reduction over time.
Through comprehensive third-party verification, ABB's EPD’s provide customers with detailed, transparent environmental metrics spanning the entire motor lifecycle—from initial design and materials extraction to manufacturing, usage, and end-of-life. With this reliable emissions data, industrial customers gain a data-driven foundation for smarter procurement decisions, allowing them to select technologies that closely align with corporate sustainability objectives and decarbonisation targets.
Addressing the gap in efficiency standards with TIE
The transparency on lifetime emissions offered by EPDs is just part of the picture. Ideally, they will be backed up by standards. That is why Industries worldwide are striving to improve energy efficiency by adopting minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) for low-voltage motors. However, these standards lag for larger systems of 3MW and above. We have introduced our Top Industrial Efficiency (TIE) initiative to directly address this gap.
TIE represents a best-in-class performance offering, delivering efficiency ratings of up to 99.13% that have just set a new world record for large rotating electrical machines. These motors and generators are engineered to go beyond current efficiency benchmarks, helping customers reduce electricity usage, operating costs, and total cost of ownership (TCO) without compromising performance.
Furthermore, the TIE solution is easy to evaluate within procurement workflows. It offers a clearly defined, high-efficiency alternative that includes built-in performance assurance: if the motor fails to meet stated efficiency criteria under specified conditions, ABB offers a refund—a unique value proposition that de-risks the sustainability investment.
Importantly, the TIE solutions are built only on tried-and-tested technologies, guaranteeing not only operational reliability and maintainability, but also faster adoption and measurable environmental impact.
Strategic role of high-efficiency motors
Large electric motors offer one of the clearest, most concentrated opportunities for reducing industrial emissions. Yet, motors exceeding 2MW capacity currently fall outside the scope of many international efficiency standards, leaving significant untapped opportunities for emissions reduction.
Improving efficiency even incrementally can deliver substantial environmental benefits. A great example is the case of the world record breaking motor that is being supplied to a steel plant in India. Opting for a TIE-optimized motor, rather than the standard design with 98.64% efficiency level, is enabling our customer to save around 61 GWh of energy and $5.9 million in electricity costs over a 25-year lifespan – equivalent to four days of peak output from the world’s largest offshore wind farm. It will also help avoid 45,000 tons of CO? emissions, comparable to removing 10,000 cars from the road for a year. The scope for savings and avoided emissions is even greater in other countries where electricity is more expensive.
Given that a 75% reduction in emissions is required globally to achieve Paris Agreement targets, such incremental savings across the industrial sector represent meaningful pathways towards a sustainable future.
Act now
Industries don’t need to wait for regulations to take action; they can choose efficiency today. With our future-proof TIE option, pioneering EPDs, and performance guarantees, selecting energy-efficient motors has become more transparent, data-driven, and simpler than ever before.
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ABB Limited (Zurich)
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Web: https://www.abb.com
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