Creating a low carbon society

Not only ABB as a company, but also our customers, want to contribute to a low carbon society. Yet this requires a willingness to relinquish our collective dependency on the forms of energy that result in the slow poisoning of the planet.

There are five key steps to achieving carbon neutrality. Firstly, to deploy digital solutions for smart green buildings and energy management such as monitoring, control and optimization, which is the core of the Mission to Zero offering. Next is to increase energy efficiency by utilizing building management systems and installing new, highly efficient motors and drives for example. Maximizing electrification is also important. For example, heat-pumps and having an EV charging infrastructure. The installation of renewable energy solutions should also feature in a low-carbon strategy. From photovoltaic technology and wind turbines, through to battery energy storage systems and thermal energy storage. Finally, procuring renewable energy from the grid and offsetting any remaining emissions.

In summary – Smartification, Digitalization and Electrification of everything, coupled with energy efficiency and renewable electricity, is proving to be the solution for the majority of carbon emissions. Nevertheless, some hurdles still exist.

From a technology standpoint, excessive consumption of electricity by inefficient equipment (e.g. legacy HVAC systems, drives, pumps, etc.), or simply due to poor asset- or occupancy-management, result in vast energy wastage. This presents a huge potential for smart building energy management systems coupled with highly efficient variable speed drives, purposely built & configured for the application. Moreover, sheer electrification of heat in buildings with improper insulation can be inefficient. This creates a need for carbon-free high-temperature heating from bio-oil, biogas or hydrogen. From a business model standpoint, few building owners can afford deep energy efficiency retrofits. This is creating a need for OPEX-based financing models like leasing or X-as-a-service. From a go-to-market standpoint, building owners expect one stop shop solutions. This creates a need for integrated end-to-end solutions, and a necessity for such a solution as Mission to Zero to be adopted.