This morning the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) announced that Italy and Germany tied for the 2018 World Cup of Energy Efficiency, earning top honors in ACEEE’s 2018 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard. Italy and Germany outscored 23 of the world’s other largest energy-consuming countries when measured across 36 metrics. These metrics include best practices in building codes, appliance and equipment standards and labeling, the energy intensity of the country’s industry, and fuel economy standards.
The ACEEE report notes that energy efficiency remains massively underutilized globally even though energy efficiency is often the least-cost means of meeting new demand for energy while reducing dependence on energy imports, saving consumer’s money, and decreasing pollution.
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ON Semiconductor technologies complement the policies and performance highlighted by ACEEE as they enable the energy efficient buildings, motor vehicles, and factories that lead to increased energy efficiency performance tracked in the scorecard.
One area that the scorecard ranks countries’ is on the energy efficiency of buildings. Last month the International Energy Agency issued a report, “The Future of Cooling – Opportunities for energy efficient air conditioning” that noted that “of the 2.8 billion people living in the hottest parts of the world, only 8% currently possess ACs, compared to 90% ownership in the United States and Japan.” The report also found that people are typically buying air conditioners whose average efficiencies are less than half of what is available and that stronger policy actions are needed to limit energy needs in space cooling. ON Semiconductor’s full spectrum of high, medium and low voltage power management products can greatly reduce energy consumption in air conditioners, dishwashers, washing machines, and other white goods applications.
Passenger-vehicle fuel economy and fuel economy standards for light and heavy duty vehicles are three metrics in the ACEEE scorecard. Vehicle Electrification will be a key technology to reduce carbon emission, increase vehicle efficiency, and reduce dependency on oil. By electrifying light vehicles, we can replace hydraulic or mechanical systems with electric systems; for example, hydraulic power steering with electric power steering, and mechanical or hydraulic pumps, such as a water pump, with an electric pump. Today this can be accomplished via numerous technologies, including start-stop (12 V & 48 V systems), Battery Electric (BEV), Hybrid-Electric (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid-Electric (PHEV), and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV). These new powertrain systems not only possess an increased number of power semiconductors, these semiconductors will operate at voltage levels between 12 and 400 V, withstanding a harsh automotive environment, in vehicles that will be part of a growing ride sharing, increased use, environment.
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The electrification of vehicles has significant semiconductor content to control their power requirements and highlight another opportunity for ON Semiconductor to contribute to a country’s energy efficiency goals.
Lastly, 21% of a country’s score is based on metrics on energy intensity, which is the energy consumed per dollar of GDP overall or in a given sector. This provides a tremendous opportunity for the Internet of Things (IoT) to decrease a country’s energy intensity with products like smart thermostats that enable smart buildings and ultimately smart cities. ON Semiconductor’s diverse portfolio of image sensors, ultra-low power wired and wireless connectivity Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), and high efficiency LED and motor control silicon are a perfect match for high performance, long battery life smart home/building devices.
Our Smart Passive Sensors are an example of a product that can improve an economy’s energy intensity by enabling battery free, wireless sensors that can be placed on each piece of equipment in a server rack to continuously monitor airflow temperatures to detect failing equipment and optimize cool air flow throughout the entire data center. Additionally, our IoT Development Kit (IDK) prototyping platform is built using ON Semiconductor’s ultra-low power products for Industrial IoT, Smart Building, Smart Home, Wearbles, asset monitoring and other IoT applcations. With a wide choice of connectivity, sensing and control options, the IDK enables rapid development and deployment of IoT applications.
ON Semiconductor is a member of the ACEEE Ally Program.
