Driving down carbon emissions

6 August, 2009

Despite the obvious benefits that it will bring, Lukaszczyk has questioned whether the new directive goes far enough.

The question is justified on two counts - ATEX motors are excluded from the directive, and the upper limit for the IE classification is only 375kW. Of the two, the omission of ATEX motors is probably the most serious because larger motors are intrinsically more efficient.

As regards the ATEX question, Lukaszczyk highlighted the fact that there has undoubtedly been a major increase in the number of hazardous areas in industry over the last decade and a commensurate increase in the number of ATEX motors employed as a result. In addition, because of the nature of the environments in which they are used, ATEX motors tend to operate continuously, consuming large amounts of energy. Therefore, it is to be hoped that the omission of ATEX category motors will be re-addressed over the implementation timescale of the new directive.