The document discusses opportunities to reduce energy intensity in UK industry. It analyzes trends that have decreased energy consumption and intensity over decades. Key opportunities identified include encouraging work from home, improving building insulation and efficiency, and optimizing transportation of goods and employees. The government provides incentives for efficiency measures. Further reductions may come from intermodal freight transport, larger trucks, and coordinating truck driving to reduce drag. While progress has been made, there is still potential to lower industry's energy intensity through innovative solutions.

1. CONFERENCE SESSION: TRANSITIONS / DE-CARBONISING
WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES AND PROSPECTS FOR REDUCED ENERGY INTENSITY IN
THE UNITED KINGDOM’S INDUSTRY?
Tommy Reynolds
Student Engineer
School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh
King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JL, Scotland, UK
Summary
The energy intensity situation in the UK is analysed and suggested measures for reducing this are
explained. Energy intensity prospects are split into three sections which outline the main areas in which
energy consumption can be reduced in the UK. These were taken to be; Employee method of transport
and office location; Factory/building quality and energy efficiency and Manufacture and transportation
of goods. Each section is explained and the future alterations are laid out with the validity of these
discussed. Prospects such as offering home working, the government providing incentives for energy
saving measures and introducing new truck driving methods such as ‘platooning’ are developed.
1 Introduction
The United Kingdom’s industry has gone through massive change in the last three centuries. The
Industrial Revolution (1760-1820) was a substantial catalyst for this change and sparked the country into
a frenzy of machines, railways and impeccable feats of engineering. This has lead the UK to becoming
a world heavyweight in sectors such as automotive engineering, pharmaceuticals and oil and gas. The
UK is now the largest producer of oil and the second-largest producer of natural gas in the European
Union (EIA, 2014).
These different sectors have developed throughout the years and the energy consumption within the
industries has altered significantly. This has caused a reduction in UK’s energy intensity which is calcu-
lated as ‘the ratio between gross inland energy consumption and Gross Domestic Product’ (European
Environment Agency, 2014) and is a measure of the energy efficiency of a nation’s economy. Using
less energy to produce a product reduces the energy intensity which various industries are striving to
achieve. This energy intensity can be affected by a very large number of factors ranging from the energy
efficiency of factories to the transportation and fuel costs associated with employees and goods. The
prospects for reducing the intensity in the industrial sector revolves primarily around improving the rate
of energy use within the various sectors and also by reducing the energy costs associated with unit
production.
When considering industries in the UK in the past, it was often common to consider the production side
as being the main contributor. In recent times however, the split of industry has shifted towards the ser-
vice sector. Jones (2013) states that the service industry has increased from contributing an estimated
46% to UK GDP in 1948 to 78% in 2012. The agriculture and production sectors also experienced a
drop in contribution from 42% to 15% and 6% to less than 1% respectively (Jones, 2013).
2 Industrial Energy Consumption
It is first necessary to provide some information regarding the energy consumption of industry in the UK.
The amount of energy consumed is found by observing the amount of fuel used by the industry. The
total quantity of fuel used is an summation of the separate fuels used. These fuels consist of coal, coke
and breeze, other solid fuels, blast furnace gas, coke oven gas, town gas, natural gas, electricity, heat
sold, bioenergy and waste, and petroleum. Each sector of the production industry is demonstrated and
this includes a range from iron and steel to paper, printing and publishing. The total energy consumption
and individual energy consumptions in each sector are demonstrated in Figure 1. The data for Figure 1
was obtained from GOV.UK(Chapter 4: Industrial data tables, 2014).
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2. Figure 1: Total energy consumption and individual energy consumption in each sector.
It can be observed from Figure 1 that the total energy consumptions over the past two decades have
had a dramatic change. The chemical industry had a large peak over the millennium to around 3.25e17
Joules but then quickly reduced to a similar level to that of the other sectors. It is interesting to note
that the vast majority of the sectors have reduced their energy consumption to an all time low in the
last 10-15 years which is an early indication that efforts are already being made to reduce the energy
consumption. There does remain room for improvement however and for this trend to continue, progress
must be made.
Although the energy consumption gives a very good indication of the efforts being made by the different
sectors of industry, it is also useful to observe the trends seen in the energy intensity of the UK over
the last 40 years. These will give a better image of the prospects available for the reduction of energy
intensity in the varying sectors. Figure 2 demonstrates the energy intensity of a small collection of these
sectors. The data for Figure 2 was obtained from GOV.UK(Chapter 4: Industrial data tables, 2014).
Figure 2: Energy intensity of different industry sectors.
Figure 2 correlates with Figure 1 by demonstrating a decrease in energy intensity over the last 40 years
however the last 20 years show a slower rate of decrease. This indicates that reducing the energy
intensity is not purely related to the fuel consumption and that other factors can have an impact.
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3. 3 Future Prospects for Energy Intensity Reduction
In order to reduce the energy intensity of the Industrial sector, many factors need to be considered.
These can be divided into separate sections according to the definition of energy intensity. This definition
renders not only the production of goods but the transport of these goods, transport of employees and
building designs to all be factors relating to the energy intensity. From this, the future prospects can be
discussed separately in the following subsections:
• Employee method of transport and office location
• Factory/building quality and energy efficiency
• Manufacture and transportation of goods
3.1 Employee Method of Transport and Office Location
When employees commute to work, the energy used in the transportation relates directly to the energy
intensity of the industry in which they are commuting to. This can have a very large impact depending on
the distance of travel to the workplace and also on the methods in which the employees use to make their
way. For example offices in the centre of town may require the employees to commute using a bus, tram,
underground or overground train which is a fairly low energy consumption mode of transport. Clearly the
best mode of transport is via walking, bicycle or any other zero emission mode of transport which could
also be possible for an inner city workplace. On the other hand, a workplace which is situated on the
outskirts of a city or in an even more remote area could result in many employees having to transport
via a car or a long distance train. As well as this, the likelihood is that the employees will live at a large
distance between each other which will reduce the opportunity for car pooling.
The Office for National Statistics (2013) has noted an increase in public transport use between 2001
and 2011 of 1.1% to 15.9% and a decrease in commuters driving to work of 0.7% to 54.5% in England
and Wales. Figure 3 demonstrates the percentage point change in employees driving or using public
transport(Office for National Statistics, 2013).
Figure 3: Percentage point change in employees driving or using public transport.
It is clear from Figure 3 that public transport is a much more common method of commuting in busy
cities compared to that of more remote areas. The commuters which drive are very closely linked with
the more sparse use of public transportation which correlates with the description above.
The necessary steps required to decrease this energy consumption are simple yet very difficult to imple-
ment. The best case scenario in city offices would clearly be for every commuter to either walk or cycle
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4. to their workplace. Currently only 2% of the UK use bicycles as a main method of transport compared to
31% in the Netherlands(Department for Transport, 2013). Clearly use can be increased however for this
to happen, road conditions need to be improved. The use of cars for short journeys has a very negative
on the energy intensity so this should be brought down to an absolute minimum. Some workplaces are
also introducing schemes where employees can choose to work from home when applicable. For exam-
ple Microsoft employees are given free access to Microsoft Unified Communications (UC) technology
which offers both hardware and software. This allows the employees to be able to be as productive as
possible when working from home and has seen benefits such as productivity gains, time saving and
many other economic benefits which add up to over $200 million (Department for Transport, 2011, p.10).
In the future it is going to be important that companies move with the times and offer more solutions
for employees such as video conferencing, home working and more flexible hours. It may be useful for
companies to allow for employees to travel at alternative hours to those of the standard commuter to
allow the rush hour traffic to ease, lowering the time spent travelling to the workplace.
3.2 Workplace Building Energy Efficiency
The industrial sector consists of many factories, offices and buildings in which products, services and
goods are fabricated. These buildings are often old and have poor energy efficiencies. This leads to a
large loss of energy which is a very large factor in the energy intensities of the industries. The energy
losses are often due to poor insulation which large amounts heat loss. This is a very easily solved
problem however the upfront costs are often large, discouraging industries to have the work complete.
Energy efficient lighting can also be implemented throughout the buildings. It is thought that a 65%
reduction in energy consumption can be achieved by using new fluorescent lighting options compared
to the older units which are used in many industrial workplaces (Wolfgang Gregor, 2009). As well as
changing the light bulbs, energy saving timers and motion sensors can be implemented to ensure the
lights are only used when necessary. It is also important to ensure all leaks in components such as
compressors and pumps are fixed to ensure maximum operation. When using machines at peak times,
the cost of the electricity to run the machines is very high. This renders it useful to schedule machine
running at low demand times to ensure the energy costs are at a low, resulting in energy being used at
a lower cost.
The UK Government(2014) has set up an array of incentives with the aim of improving the energy
efficiency of all sectors so that their energy use per capita is between a fifth and a half lower than it is at
the moment. This is part of the ‘Carbon Plan’ which is to cut the UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80%
by 2050. These incentives include(GOV.UK, 2014):
• CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: Aimed to cut emissions in large energy users in UK industries
who are responsible for around 10% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
• Enhanced Capital Allowances: Allows businesses to write off total cost of energy saving measures
by using it against their taxable profit as a 100% first-year capital allowance.
• Climate Change Agreements: Gives industries a discount on the ‘Climate Change Levy’, a tax on
energy use, if the industries meet energy efficiency improvement targets.
• Smart Meters: Also being implemented in households, smart meters provide real time information
on energy use.
• Combined Heat and Power: Allows heat to be captured and used efficiently when producing power.
This is the most prominent solution and can increase efficiencies from around 40% to 80%.
• Salix Finance: Government funded scheme which provides interest free loans to industries to
purchase energy efficiency improvements.
It is clear that the UK is actively pushing towards a lower energy intensity within industry. The plans
have been set out to achieve this and industries must take full advantage of these in order to reduce
their energy consumption, hence reducing the energy intensity.
3.3 Manufacture and Transportation of Goods
When considering the transportation of goods, it is often forgotten how large scale the process is. It is
therefore vital that the transport of the goods is kept to a minimum possible energy consumption. Goods
are most frequently transported in HGVs which travel large distances. Other transport methods are rail,
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5. ships and pipelines. Figure 4 demonstrates the variation in the amount of freight carried by the four
methods described previously.
Figure 4: Variation of freight transport options (GOV.UK, 2013).
It is clear from Figure 4 that the main method of freight carriage is via trucks. This area has a lot of scope
for improvements and a prime example of a specific company improving their energy consumption in the
transportation of goods is Cadbury. Five years ago Cadbury had a total of 15 warehouses from which
the products were transported via 60 vehicles. This has seen a vast improvement and the company now
uses a specialist transporter which has reduced the number of warehouses to three. This is expected to
have saved roughly 5 million miles of travel, 7500 tonnes of CO2 and 15% of haulage costs (FDF, 2009).
Other plans to reduce the energy consumption via transportation are also being implemented through-
out industries. Intermodal transport is the process of moving goods in a specific container which can be
carried via both HGV and rail. The advantage of this is that the goods do not have to be emptied and
reloaded each time they are switched between transport method. This has great scope for implementa-
tion in more industries and is currently being trialled by Nynas with an average reduction of 75% in CO2
emissions having been observed (Nynas 2014).
Volvo(2014) have also issued some potential guidelines for improving transport efficiencies. First is the
concept of increasing truck length to allow each truck to transport more goods. The average length of
a truck is roughly 19m (Stefan Larsson, 2009) and an increase of this would see lower emissions per
ton-kilometre since less vehicles would need to be used. As well as increasing the size of trucks, the
driving method of the trucks could be improved. When driving long distances, trucks could be ‘platooned’
which involves many trucks driving in a line. This could even include only one manually driven truck at
the front of the platoon and the rest of the trucks would have sophisticated sensors which keep them
at a minimum distance, reducing drag and increasing efficiency. Although this is an exciting prospect,
UK expansion of this would be difficult due to the relatively short distance journeys available compared
to other, larger nations. Within the city environment, it is suggested that a ‘FreightBus’ is used which
would consist of passenger buses also being used to carry freight. Finally it is suggested that the airship
should be brought back into use because of the low amount of fuel consumption and reduced necessity
of airports.
All of these options are very exciting prospects for the future and the implementation into industry may
take time. It is difficult to estimate the savings which could be achieved implementing these changes
but it is certain that the consumption of energy will reduce dramatically. By reducing the energy used
transporting goods, the industries will have a reduced energy intensity and the costs associated with
transportation of the goods will also reduce significantly.
4 Conclusion
• Vast reduction in energy intensity of industry in UK in last 40 years but still scope for improvement.
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6. • Video conferencing, flexible hours and home working prospects for employees.
• The spread of company warehouses should be made as small as possible with Cadbury being a
good example of this having reduced to 3 warehouses and saving 15% of haulage costs.
• Opportunities for alterations to the workplace include insulation and installation of energy efficient
fluorescent light bulbs. These could save up to 65% compared to the old alternative. Also motors
should be updated to ensure maximum efficiency is being achieved and any leakages in pumps
and compressors fixed.
• The government has also provided some incentives for industries to begin the changes required for
a lower energy intensive future. These include CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, Climate Change
Agreements, Enhanced Capital Allowances and Salix Finance.
• Improvements to transportation include intermodal transport which could provide a CO2 reduction
of up to 75%. Also increasing truck length to allow for more freight per truck and a ‘FreightBus’
which carries both passengers and freight. ‘Platooning’ could be implemented which involved
trucks driving in line with each other to reduce drag. Finally it is suggested that airships should be
brought back into circulation because of the low fuel consumption they offer.
• Prospects to reduce energy intensity in the UK industry are bright with many viable options.
• High initial expenditure may be necessary however benefits will be noticed quickly.
• Some options do not seem as viable in the UK because of the small scale distances however there
is no reason that this could change in the future.
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