August 27, 2007

Rising Energy Costs Force Changes At Hitachi Unit

With the price of products such as laptops always coming down, and energy prices going up, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Singapore Pte. Ltd. has been finding ways to cut its energy use, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The company encourages double-sided printing, sets limits on paper consumption and recycles ink cartridges, but electricity conservation is where the most money has been saved.

Installing an automatic switch-off system that shuts all the lights at lunch and after office hours, and switching the regular fluorescent light bulbs to more-efficient high-intensity fluorescent bulbs, for example, has helped cut the office building’s annual electricity bill by about 30 percent.

One of the biggest changes made has been the installation of state-of-the-art chillers, the equipment used to maintain the plant’s clean rooms at the correct temperature and humidity, with variable-speed drives, according to the article. On the company’s list this year is discharging hot air generated by production equipment into the air outside the plantIt’s also considering solar power.

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