by ren van berkelseveral of tamil nadus industries are both energy intensive and customer price sensitive which is particularly precarious in the current time as energy prices are soaring and highly volatile globally energy efficiency and innovation and renewable process heating and cooling are therefore critical to business continuity and growth whilst also necessary for mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change investing in this sustainable industrial energy transition makes good business sense as demonstrated by the united nations industrial development organization unido and its partners in tamil nadu and elsewherecoimbatore is home to a flourishing foundry industry serving pumps automotive machine textile and other engineering industries energy costs account on average for 3035 of manufacturing costs in foundries with the melting section consuming the lions share of nearly 70 foundries can typically save 510 on their energy bill with wellestablished energy efficiency techniques and better operating practices unido with bureau of energy efficiency bee and the coimbatore industrial infrastructure association coindia supported the implementation of energy efficiency in micro small and medium foundries in the coimbatore region at least 130 foundries implemented 253 measures with a cumulative investment of rs30 crore this resulted in energy savings of nearly 1600 tonnes of oil equivalent reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 15500 tonnes and achieved annual cost savings of rs23 crorethe project documented 21 specific techniques of which eight typically require an investment of less than rs2 lakh seven require an investment up to rs10 lakh and the remaining six need more than rs10 lakh in investment one foundry invested rs44 lakh to replace conventional cupola furnace with energy efficient 12 pulse induction furnace with a payback of 16 years only another firm installed an efficient shot blast machine with rs89 lakh with a simple pay back of 37 years the replacement of an old motor with energy efficient ie3 motor achieved another foundry a pay back of 14 years on an initial investment of rs28 lakh the addition of variable frequency drive to an existing screw compressor at a cost of rs29 lakh achieved a payback in eight months some foundries went further into renewable energy with one foundry setting up a 1mwh solar plant at a cost of rs495 lakh and expected pay back in 32 yearscoinda has acquired energy monitoring instruments through the project to conduct energy audits in foundry and other sectors up to 50 statelevel subsidies are now available for conducting an energy efficiency audit and up to 25 grant towards investment of recommended energy efficiency measuresvellore is home to a vibrant rice milling cluster in collaboration with the ministry of msme unido and partners are zooming in on replicable energy efficiency solutions to standardise and bulk procure these and finance these from their future energy and costs savings through energy service contracts with energy efficiency services limited so far two technologies have been successfully demonstrated the innovative lsu dryer system with an investment of rs12 lakh saves more than 15 on