Energy efficient motors - Saving money or costing the Earth? Part 1

Electric motors are not readily linked to environmental pollution. The effi ciency of the average industrial motor is about 90% - far higher than an in ternal combustion engine of the same rating - and electric motors only emit heat and noise, usually at quite harmless levels. This simplistic view ign ores the fact that electric motors use over half the total delivered electr ical energy in any developed economy and that most types of generation curr ently in commercial use give vise to significant pollution problems.