Engineering firm Danfoss recently hosted a ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of one of the world’s most energy-efficient supermarkets. The state-of-the-art supermarket is situated right next to the company’s headquarters in Nordborg, Denmark, and Danfoss envisions that it will lead the way for supermarket chains around the world to develop climate-friendly and sustainable stores with technologies that already exist today.
Built with leading energy-efficient refrigeration and heating technology, solar roof panels and charging points for electric cars, the Smart Store supermarket will capture and reuse heat produced by cooling cabinets and freezers to provide heating for the supermarket and the local community through district energy. The cooling system in the new supermarket will also run on carbon dioxide – a natural refrigerant – which helps to reduce the overall climate impact.
Kristian Strand, president of Danfoss Climate Solutions’ refrigeration and A/C controls division, says: “The origins of this project go back a long time, but the new energy-efficient Smart Store supermarket that we are starting to build today has only grown in relevance. The goal of the project is to show how easy and profitable it is to decarbonise our economy and ensure reliable and sustainable energy use. Heating and cooling are the largest energy consumers in supermarkets. The solutions we are building here today represent the core of Danfoss solutions and will showcase how we can approach zero energy use in food retail, together.”
This site will also serve as an application development centre where Danfoss will work together with partners to co-develop new technologies and explore interfaces in the energy system surrounding energy storage. “The supermarket will be the focal point for a new part of our campus, where all buildings will be energy-efficient and meet special sustainability requirements,” adds Jürgen Fischer, president of Danfoss Climate Solutions. “Our aim is to boost the green transition with concrete evidence of how far we can go with energy efficiency. We want to demonstrate to customers and partners how energy-saving solutions work in real life. We want to show that the greenest energy is the energy we don’t use, or reuse.”
BALS (Brugsen for Als and Sundeved), Denmark’s largest independent supermarket association, will rent the building from Danfoss and install a Coop 365 discount supermarket. BALS, which works together with Coop, has a total of 13 stores in the area around Sønderborg and since 2015 has consistently reduced the consumption of energy in its stores. So far, they have cut 44 percent of their total CO2 emissions collectively. Therefore, it was a natural next step that BALS became a partner in the project.
Showroom for customers
Danfoss is establishing a showroom in a part of the supermarket building, where all installations are visible to visitors and customers. Danfoss' solutions for heating and cooling – such as CO2 as a refrigerant, heat recovery and the interaction between installations – will thus be experienced while they are in operation.
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