Electrifying Heat to Boost Performance
We Mean Business Coalition
At its Massa factory in Italy, SKF is manufacturing ball bearings used around the world, more efficiently, sustainably and competitively.
At its factory in Massa, Italy, one of the world’s biggest rolling bearing manufacturers, SKF Group, has fully electrified its heating and cooling systems, thanks to the replacement of outdated and wasteful gas-fired boilers with heat pumps. Slashing operational energy use, the highly efficient new system is digitally optimized and financially beneficial. Another benefit of these upgrades is that the heat pumps are reversible, meaning that alongside heating the premises, they can also efficiently cool the workshop in the summer – a boost for workers’ comfort and productivity.
Making the world go round
Steel ball bearings are essential parts of the machines that most people rely upon every day – including electric motors, power tools, electrical appliances, manufacturing machinery, gearboxes, farming equipment and conveyor belts.
Designed to smooth rotation and remove friction, they are in huge demand, driven by the recent growth in the robotics, electric vehicle and aerospace sectors.
Each year, more than 8,500 specialist manufacturers worldwide produce over 18 billion ball bearings, and this figure is rapidly growing. In 2024, the global market was worth just over US $18 billion – and by 2033, it’s projected to jump to over US $25 billion. Over two-thirds of the global market share is consolidated among five big companies, one of the world’s biggest bearing manufacturers, SKF Group, based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Electrifying the factory floor with heat pumps
In the Italian town of Massa in Tuscany, SKF Group has replaced the gas-fired boilers with electric-powered heat pumps capable of both cooling and heating.
Elisa Otano, who has been the Massa factory manager since 2021, explained that the motivation behind this transformation was much broader than just cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
“We created a detailed roadmap, leading not only with sustainability – but with digitalization and energy efficiency too,” she said. “All of them provide a competitive advantage for our factory.”
Indeed, since the installation of the factory’s new electric system in 2024, energy demand has fallen sharply compared to when the gas-fired boilers were in use. Meanwhile, a new metering system means that monitoring energy performance has been integrated into the factory’s daily routine.
When a particular machine is not operating at optimal efficiency, the digital system sets off an alarm and engineers intervene to fix the problem, ensuring that the equipment is always using the least amount of energy possible.
Financially, the factory’s electrification is already paying off.
“The cost savings – not only from the heating and cooling system but in general from the sustainability roadmap – are bigger than we expected at the beginning,” said Otano.
“In this moment of high competitiveness, with Europe competing with low-cost countries, we have very few opportunities to improve our manufacturing costs. But these kind of activities promote the opportunity to be competitive in terms of factory processes, products and the overall business.”
However, the factory’s economic savings would have been even greater if electricity prices in Italy were not so high compared with those of fossil gas. For this reason, Björn Rinde, SKF Group’s factory decarbonization program manager, highlighted the importance of policy frameworks that support electrification.
One of the many additional benefits of the factory’s electrification is that it has improved worker conditions. On hot days, the heat pump can be reversed for cooling, sending cool air into the factory, avoiding extra installation costs for air-conditioning units. In Otano’s opinion, this has had an even greater effect on workforce morale than she’d anticipated, boosting productivity and, therefore, competitiveness.
When it comes to meeting climate goals, all the electricity sourced comes from renewable sources, as Rinde, explained: “SKF Group has a virtual power purchase agreement with a solar energy plant in Spain, which covers 60 percent of the Massa factory’s electricity. The rest is provided by buying Guarantees of Origin renewable electricity within the AIB framework, which are verified as part of our annual reporting by our third-party auditor.”
To meet the SKF Group’s climate targets, the Massa factory had to demonstrate a reduction corresponding to 95% in emissions compared to a 2019 baseline – in terms of both the direct operational emissions from its manufacturing processes, and those related to purchased utilities.
The SKF Group has also electrified and decarbonized another eleven factories within its global manufacturing footprint in the following locations: Nilai in Malaysia; Puebla in Mexico; Bangalore, Haridwar and Pune in India; Ladson in the U.S.; Steyr in Austria; Tudela in Spain; Jakarta in Indonesia; Jinan in China; and Gothenburg in Sweden.
Electrification and energy efficiency go hand-in-hand.
Electrification is not just about decarbonization but the improvement of energy efficiency, worker conditions and productivity too. This holistic approach is at the heart of SKF Group’s strategy.
“For us to communicate that a factory has been decarbonized, it not only has to show emissions reduction in line with our commitments – but also improved energy performance,” said Rinde. “We think it’s a critical part of societal decarbonization that we use energy in an efficient way.”