New Application Development Centre opens at flagship energy-efficient “Smart Store” supermarket near Danfoss’ headquarters in Nordborg, Denmark:
- This collaborative test environment will empower original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contractors, food retailers, and Danfoss engineers to develop new technologies and solutions to enhance energy and operational efficiency for food retail.
- The Danfoss ‘Smart Store’ is a functioning supermarket, providing the unique opportunity to understand how new technology will operate in the real world, while empowering the store managers to focus on their business while saving energy and costs.
- The store uses world-class heating and cooling technology and automation solutions with payback times of less than 3-4 years.
Co-developing the future of sustainable food retail
Danfoss opened the doors today to the Application Development Centre within the ‘Smart Store’ supermarket, which is part of a full Decarbonisation Park including several innovation centres for applications such as heat pumps, heat recovery, next-generation district heating networks, and data centres. The new Application Development Centre will offer the cooling and heating industry the opportunity to access state-of-the-art test facilities and expert support, for field testing new components and cloud technologies for both small and large applications.
Danfoss has built a new Smart Store supermarket at its headquarters that will lead the way for climate-friendly food retail with energy-efficient heating and cooling technologies. The store is expected to be 50% more energy efficient than a traditional store, and 90% of the space heating needs for the entire store will be provided by a heat recovery unit that captures excess heat produced by the cooling systems. The supermarket has two refrigeration systems that run independently, ensuring that product testing does not interfere with the operations of the supermarket.
Energy as a Service: Saving energy while decreasing upfront costs
Refrigeration is a delicate balance. If you use too much cooling you waste energy, if you use too little you risk food loss. With smart controls and digital monitoring, retailers can optimise capacity and demand, allowing them to respond to anomalies in a timely manner preventing energy and food losses. The store will be managed by Danfoss and ANEO Retail’s partnership, and their unique service model, "Energy as a service (EaaS)", which allows grocery stores to subscribe to technical facilities as a service, reducing their operational expenses and time spent on issue management.
The concept allows supermarkets to implement the most energy-efficient equipment without large investments and high up-front costs. The store’s refrigeration and comfort cooling systems run exclusively on natural refrigerants (CO2), which have the lowest possible global warming potential score.
The occasion was celebrated with an open house event for Danfoss partners and customers who have contributed to the site. Peder Gabrielsen from the European Environment Agency offered a keynote speech, followed by a site tour of the event led by Danfoss leadership. Interested organisations can now get in touch to schedule their own site visit.
“With the fluorinated gas (F-gas) Regulation in Europe we are seeing a reduction of F-gas emissions and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is driving the refrigerant transition at a global level. The example we see here today is a good example of movement in the right direction. When energy efficiency and low global warming potential refrigerants work in tandem, we can vastly cut emissions from heating and cooling,” says Peder Gabrielsen. “The need to use energy more efficiently and to reduce costs is constantly growing. Innovation like what we see here has a key role to play in finding the best solutions,” he added.
For further information please contact:
Pia Beltrao Hansen, Communications & PR Director
Ph: +45 31401245
Email: pia.hansen@danfoss.com
