News from Japan

As reported in this article in 2022, a synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) has many advantages over conventional motors [1]. Conventional high-efficiency motors generally use rare earth permanent magnets. In comparison, a SynRM does not use permanent magnets. Rare earth metals, the raw materials for permanent magnets, emit lots of CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> during their mining processes and are thus inconsistent with creating a green society. Furthermore, such materials are not abundant and are only produced in a few countries. Therefore, a SynRM, which does not use rare earth permanent magnets, is superior from the perspective of preventing global warming and avoiding geopolitical risks.