Track: Energy

Abstract

Worsening environmental degradation, depletion of fossil fuels reserves, and fuel price volatility have led to increased concerns about getting adequate energy to power the rapidly growing industrial sector and other uses. The cost of energy is a major contributor to the rising cost of production and a source of worry to both the producers and consumers alike. Investigation into devising sustainable, accessible, and affordable energy sources to power the manufacturing sector and other consumers has engaged the attention of researchers and other stakeholders in recent decades. The current research, therefore, investigates techniques for ensuring sustainable energy consumption in the Industry 4.0 era. Results show that effective implementation of energy saving, cost reduction, and green manufacturing measures will lower energy costs, benefit the environment and result in a high return on invested capital. The application of novel intelligent technologies like cyber-physical systems, industrial internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, smart metering, and other components of Industry 4.0 will contribute to achieving sustainable energy utilization in the manufacturing sector. Going forward, more targeted investigations are required to cultivate realistic and implementable models for achieving affordable, environmentally benign, and sustainable energy for the manufacturing sector.