Is this the Koch of the Koch Brothers that I only know as the financiers behind the GOP and climate denialism and bankrolling efforts to gut environmental protection laws?
The most interesting quote (from part 2 of the interview):
> Charles Koch argues that the biggest threats to America these days are special interests, cronyism, and corporate welfare. Which may seem strange if you think of a corporate CEO, like Koch, as a beneficiary of those things. He also argues that our political system has turned into a dumpster fire, with both parties guilty of rent-seeking and putting their thumbs on whatever scales they can find. Which may also strike you as strange, if you consider that what a political network like the Koch Brothers’ network does is — well, puts its thumb on the scale. Because he primarily funds Republicans, and because so much of that funding is “dark,” anonymous money, he is seen by most Democrats as something close to the devil — even though some of his positions, as you’ll hear today, align quite snugly with traditional liberal positions.
> My overall impression from speaking with him? Charles Koch believes he’s fighting the good fight based on proven principles — and that the rest of America has been going mad, bit by bit.
Edit: Skimming the article makes it sound like they switched from U/f control to vector control.
the difficulty is not all motors are of course able to be programmed so while this fix will help those that are it does point out that there are still big energy savings to be had to replace existing 'dumb' motors. Now I will mention the obvious, none of them should be on the net but I can see a local network that is air gap being useful
What they are working on is variable speed motors which need a special "drive" (aka VFD) device to convert the constant 50 or 60 Hz power supply to a variable frequency. Now VFDs are getting more common as simply using a VFD can make big efficiency gains on a process. But VFDs are still not the norm yet.
But this is a good step.
This is also something the Koch's do -- they fund many astroturfing groups, e.g. Citizens for a Sound Economy.
I have a feeling that Neil Singer gives off air of a scam artist
As far as the actual energy savings, technology wise they are not really anything new. Such savings are only possible because their machines seem to have been very energy inefficient to begin with.
If they really want to push the edge they should get rid of their lossy induction motors and install BLDCs or reluctance motors.
But they are correct that electric motors use up a lot of the worlds power and existing known improvements in electric motors can greatly reduce power use.
