With a mere 5% of the world's population currently consuming 23% of its energy, the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to extend the world's energy supplies, according to Fairchild Semiconductor, is through energy efficiency. Effective energy efficiency measures can lead to enormous savings, reducing the tonnage of CO2 produced, and saving billions of dollars each year.
"At the end of the day, semiconductor
companies are going to be environmentally cautious, and have to realize
that they're going to reduce the waste of energy. From the Fairchild
standpoint, we start from the different forms of energy in the office -
lighting, motors, power supplies - and see how our products enable more
energy efficient applications. Another phase is to try to meet the
various regulations in the world, and see how our products can
contribute to that. Semiconductor suppliers should also look at
availability of alternative energy sources," said Claudia Innes,
director of marketing, Worldwide Sales & Marketing, Fairchild
Semiconductor.
Fairchild has developed a range of solutions to address the energy efficiency challenge. The company has issued some revealing figures concerning ways in which energy efficient products can result in considerable savings. Such products are available from the company for motors, power supplies and lighting.
According to Fairchild, moving from single-phase AC motors to variable speed motors offers up to 40% savings. In terms of cost, US$7.3 billion is wasted per year due to poor driving efficiency. Moving from non-inverter AC drives to inverter-controlled drives can save 20%, while moving from brushless motors fed by inverters can save up to 40%.
Fairchild solutions for improving the energy efficiency of motors include: power MOSFETs (used for low-voltage motor controls), motion-SPM (smart power modules), optocouplers, Zener diodes, Fairchild Power Switch (FPS), PFC-SPM, HVICs, stealth diodes, and Triacs.
Changing to high efficiency power supplies offers up to 35% savings,
Fairchild said. Power supplies in the US apparently waste 3% to 4% of
US electricity.
Meanwhile, electronics equipment in standby mode consumes almost 5% of
residential electricity, costing about US$3.5 billion per year.
Regulations and standards are driving improvements in offline, idle, sleep and active modes. Fairchild's solutions for improving the efficiency of power supplies include: power MOSFETs, IGBTs (used for line-voltage motor controls), rectifiers, PWM-ICs, PWM/PFC combos, FPS, optocouplers, voltage references and LDOs.
Fairchild believes that converting from incandescent light bulbs to CFL lighting offers up to 75% savings (even more with LED lighting). CFL bulbs use up to 75% less energy than standard incandescent light bulbs, and last up to 10 times longer. This means there is a saving of about US$30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime. CFL bulbs also produce about 75% less heat, so they are safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
Fairchild solutions for improving lighting efficiency include: ballast control ICs, MOSFETs, IGBTs, HVICs, PWM/PFC controllers, Green FPS, optocouplers, rectifiers, diodes, and transistors.
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