Award for the world’s first energy-saving small motor
As a member of an environmental partnership network we pay strict attention when designing our drives for low power consumption and long service lives and making our drives with a sparing use of materials. In this way we minimize their impact on the environment throughout their entire life cycles. This conscientious treatment of our natural resources led to our winning the “award umwelt unternehmen nordwest 2009”.
On 16th February the small motor manufacturer ROTEK from Bremerhaven received the ‘preis umwelt unternehmen: Nordwest 2009’ award along with the 35,000 Euros prize money at the Bremen Schauspielhaus theatre. Rotek GmbH & Co. KG was nominated for its energy saving motor ROSYNC and the GreenDrive technology. ROTEK received another award and 10,000 Euros of prize money in the category ‘Energy’.
At the evening prize ceremony, both Reinhard Loske (Green Party), the Bremen Senator for Environment, Construction, Transport and Europe Affairs, and Oliver Liersch (FDP), the Secretary of State at the Lower Saxony Ministry for Economy recognised the importance of this product, developed by ROTEK, to the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan region. Sabine Johannsen, the General Manager of NBank – Investitions- und Förderbank Niedersachsen, as well as Holger Neumann, the General Manager of Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH congratulated the General Managers of Rotek GmbH & Co. KG – Wilfried, Klaus und Rolf Treusch – as they awarded them the ‘preis umwelt unternehmen: Nordwest 2009’ prize.
Dr. Cornelis Rasmussen, the General Manager of Bremer Energie-Konsens GmbH and sponsor in the category ‘Energy’, congratulated the double winner: “Drastic improvements in efficiency at the same level of costs: this does not just protect the environment and reduce hazardous CO2 emissions, but innovatively fills a market niche. The project we are giving this award to shows how much energy can be saved in an exemplary and commendable way through consistent product design.”
ROTEK launched the highly-efficient small ROSYNC motor in 2008. It has an innovative stator construction together with an optimised rotor and the latest magnetic materials. The construction is an in-house development which the company has registered a patent for. It is called GreenDrive Technology and makes ROSYNC the first energy-saving small motor for AC applications in the world.
The jury viewed the GreenDrive Technology as an innovative new development, which can save considerable amounts of energy thanks to its wide range of applications. ROSYNC motors with GreenDrive Technology achieve efficiency rates of up to 90 percent, while standard drives on the market have efficiency rates of 20 to 60 percent. One single ROSYNC motor prevents up to 150kg of CO2 per year, 200-times its own weight.
This can be shown in practise taking the example of conveyor belts. Using one three-phase motor with 50 watt output ensures that 150kg less CO2 is produced each year compared to a normal motor with the same output. If just 100 small motors are exchanged for ROSYNC series motors, annual energy costs can be reduced by € 4-6,000, depending on energy prices. The motors are currently used in pellet heaters, filter systems and conveyor belts.
In addition the award-winning motor is smaller, minimising the materials used in production. Due to the enormous saving potential and the large number of motors which could be used worldwide, the jury also gave this project an award in the category ‘Energy’.
We focus on the development of especially efficient small motors, as considerable energy saving potential is still expected in this area. This is because the conversion to energy-efficient technology is necessary in order to reduce CO2 emissions, which reduces costs and contributes to climate protection. ROTEK has been a member of the Bremen environment-business partnership ‘partnerschaft umwelt unternehmen’ (puu) since 2008