Energy efficient motors saving money or costing the earth? Part I

Electric motors are not readily linked to environmental pollution. The efficiency of the average industrial motor is about 90%-far higher than an internal combustion engine of the same rating-and electric motors only emit heat and noise, usually at quite harmless levels. This simplistic view ignores the fact that electric motors use over half the total delivered electrical energy in any developed economy and that most types of generation currently in commercial use give rise to significant pollution problems.