Energy efficiency practices and environment management are an important component for the thermal power plants and other hard-to-abate sectors to survive.

Stating that energy efficiency is the “first fuel”, Ravichandran Purushothaman, President- Danfoss India Region and Chairman, CII GBC Energy Efficiency Council said that reining in the scale of unprecedented challenge, supporting net-zero energy goals at lower costs, and delivering a wide array of benefits for society should be the norm.

Acknowledging that there is no magic bullet to acheive this, Purushothaman said, “In India many businesses and sectors are aligning their strategies with the net-zero goal to contribute to India’s target of achieving net zero by 2070.”

Study findings

Danfoss, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), conducted a study to estimate the potential for decarbonisation in hard-to-abate sectors. Sharing some points from the study, he said, energy efficiency measures have the potential to contribute 44 per cent in a Business as Usual (BAU) scenario and 32 per cent in a Deep Decarbonisation scenario. The estimated emission reductions in these scenarios could be around 15.47 per cent for BAU and 29.01 per cent for Deep Decarbonisation.

“In a nutshell, energy efficiency is not only key to reducing emissions and meeting the Paris Agreement targets, but also crucial for improving energy security, enhancing resilience, and ensuring sustainable development,” Purushothaman said in his address at the 23rd edition Energy Efficiency Summit 2024 here on Tuesday.

“By adopting stronger energy efficiency policies and financing mechanisms, countries can significantly advance their climate goals and contribute to a more sustainable, low-carbon future,” he added.

Sharing his thoughts on picking these sectors, he told businessline that “in this conference, we are not talking green but we are talking conservation. How do we produce 100 per cent while using less energy? How do we use technology for this purpose?”

Future plan

Elaborating he said,  “We use data, we analyse and then see how to optimise. The entire game here is around saving. This is first area we are debating about. The second area is how do we re-use some of the energy that is wasted?”

For example, the kiln process in the cement industry wastes a lot heat. How do we capture that wasted heat and convert it into a useful form of energy? Wasted heat can be converted into cooling a particular space as well, he said.

“So the the first area is reduction (conservation) and the second one is reuse,” he added. And then, the third area today is arising with renewable energy pricing coming down significantly to ₹2 per kWh. “How do we flip the fossil fuel to renewable?,” he said.

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