Environment and energy efficiency - Lenze in Switzerland

Almost half of the electrical energy that is produced today is consumed by industrial applications. Responsible for a large portion of the total amount of consumed energy are electrical drive systems. And exactly for this reason, the highest potential for an increase in energy efficiency can be found here. With sustainable effects: a better utilisation includes at the same time less pollution of the environment, a relief for the resources and a reduction of energy costs - with a steady and consistent productivity.

Saving energy is one of the greatest challenges we face today and which we happily face. We show you how more efficient use can be made of energy with intelligent drive and automation technology - with our Lenze BlueGreen Solutions.

Increase of energy efficiency: Saving can be so simple

How your company and the environment can benefit equally

There are a whole range of parameters which determine the energy efficiency of drives. There are an equally large number of places where you can start to improve energy efficiency. But the results gained don't always reflect the amount of work involved. You first need a detailed analysis of the mechanical process and its energy requirements in order to determine effective and therefore meaningful measures. This is the principle applied by our Lenze BlueGreen Solutions.

Our result:

The greatest potential to increase the energy efficiency lies in an intelligent energy supply (75 %).
Followed by the application of drive components with a high degree of efficiency (15 %).
An additional potential is the utilisation of the braking energy (10 %).

Efficient components translate into an overall efficient system

The greater the efficiency of a drive, the more efficiently it runs and the same is true not just of its individual components, but the complete system.

To avoid squandering energy, we need to start making the right choices from the point at which we select drive components. Depending on the machine's task, there are different approaches to saving energy.

Lenze BlueGreen Solutions for your machine tasks:

Inverters
- Low self energy consumption
- High efficiency
Three-phase AC motors
- In accordance with the international efficiency guidelines
- Designed for the application with an inverter
Synchronous motors instead of asynchronous motors
- 30 % less energy consumption during the typical positioning applications
- Small inverter
Energy-efficient gearboxes
- Helical gearbox and bevel gearbox with a high degree of efficiency

Ecodesign directive

Convert now to future-proof solutions without any effort.

To increase the energy efficiency of drives, we are therefore pursuing three approaches:

Electric energy used intelligently

As little as necessary - as efficient as possible.

For effective use to be made of energy in all drive processes, the dimensions should be perfect. The mechanical power output by the electric drive must therefore always be oriented towards the actual requirement for the application. Our BlueGreen Solutions concepts take account of both the maximum power needed and fluctuation in operation.

Our solutions for the intelligent application of electrical energy:

Precise design of the drive system using the Drive Solution Designer (DSD)
- Avoidance of over-dimensioning
- Simulation of the drive behaviour
Application of inverters for the control or regulation of the drive systems
- Energy efficient motion control
- An increased degree of efficiency through optimisation of the motor operating point
- Optimised energy utilisation of the drive system

Converting energy with high efficiency

The greater the efficiency of a drive, the more efficiently it runs and the same is true not just of its individual components, but the complete system.

To avoid squandering energy, we need to start making the right choices from the point at which we select drive components. Depending on the machine's task, there are different approaches to saving energy.

Lenze BlueGreen Solutions for your machine tasks:

Inverters
- Low self energy consumption
- High efficiency
Three-phase AC motors
- In accordance with the international efficiency guidelines
- Designed for the application with an inverter
Synchronous motors instead of asynchronous motors
- 30 % less energy consumption during the typical positioning applications
- Small inverter
Energy-efficient gearboxes
- Helical gearbox and bevel gearbox with a high degree of efficiency

Using recovered braking energy

We believe in making use of energy that already exists

Many applications with electric drives require frequent accelerating and/or braking. When accelerating or lifting, electric energy is converted into kinetic or potential energy, some of which is recovered when braking or lowering.

Nowadays this recovered energy is often converted into heat via a brake resistor and is then lost unused. But in some applications it is worth passing on this braking energy for another use, thereby improving energy efficiency.

Lenze BlueGreen Solutions for using braking energy:

Energy exchange between drive systems in a DC-bus connection of the inverters
Power recovery to the mains
- Useful if the regenerative power output is larger than 5 kW
- Through a regenerative module
Short-term intermediate energy storage in a capacitor module

Lenze BlueGreen in Drive Solutions

It's easy to save energy with drive technology

All drives can be assigned to one of our twelve Drive Solutions which can be used to easily highlight those measures for minimising energy consumption which are effective, less effective or totally unsuitable.

The overview is available to download from this page and contains a detailed list of energy saving measures for each drive solution.