Danfoss – Danfoss opens ‘Smart Store’ innovation center to accelerate energy efficiency in food retail

August 24, 2023
Danfoss

New Application Development Center 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 Center within the ‘Smart Store’ supermarket, which is part of a full Decarbonization Park including several innovation centers for applications such as heat pumps, heat recovery, next-generation district heating networks, and data centers. The new Application Development Center 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 optimize 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 new ‘Smart Store showcases the incredible possibilities we have ready today with existing solutions for natural refrigerants, energy efficiency, and sourcing renewables – all in one installation. We are proud to officially welcome customers and partners to the Application Development Center today, to take the next steps together to reimagine the future and develop new heating and cooling technologies that pave the way towards zero-emission food retail.

Jürgen Fischer, President, Danfoss Climate Solutions

 

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 organizations 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.

 

SourceDanfoss

EMR Analysis

More information on Danfoss: See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on Kim Fausing (President and CEO, Danfoss): See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on Jürgen Fischer (Member of the Group Executive Team (GET), President, Danfoss Climate Solutions, Danfoss): See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

 

More information on ANEO Retail: https://www.aneo.com/tjenester/retail/ + Since its establishment in 1950, TrønderEnergi has been a driving force in the Norwegian power industry. Today, we are the only power company in Norway with greater production of new power than hydropower. With the launch of Aneo, we are taking the next big step. TrønderEnergi joins forces with HitecVision and establishes a completely new type of renewable group. The company will have its head office in Trondheim and activities throughout the Nordic region. With this, we gain increased execution power, investment power and innovation power, and at the same time we facilitate new and ambitious customer solutions within electrification and energy efficiency. Aneo will invest heavily in renewable energy production, electrification and energy efficiency. Our goal is to be a driving force behind the green shift with the will and investment power to develop new green value chains. 
More information on Kjetil Larsen (General Manager, ANEO Retail): https://www.linkedin.com/in/kjetil-larsen-66283a8a/ 

More information on Tarje Holskil (Executive Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, ANEO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/holskil/ 

 

More information on The European Environment Agency: https://www.eea.europa.eu/ + The European Environment Agency provides sound, independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public. In close collaboration with the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (Eionet) and its 32 member countries, the EEA gathers data and produces assessments on a wide range of topics related to the environment.

More information on Peder Gabrielsen (Project Manager – ODS and F-Gases, The European Environment Agency): https://www.linkedin.com/in/peder-gabrielsen/ 

 

 

 

EMR Additional Notes: 

  • OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer):
    • Company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer.
    • Usually tagged on hardware or software that’s less expensive than normal retail products.
    • An OEM refers to something made specifically for the original product, while the aftermarket refers to equipment made by another company that a consumer may use as a replacement.
    • Electrical OEM manufacturers makes equipment or components that are then utilized by its customer, another manufacturer or a reseller, usually under the final reseller’s brand name. OEMs come in many shapes and sizes, making complete devices or specific components.
  • MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations):
    • It refers to all the activities needed to keep a company’s facilities and production processes running smoothly.
    • Supplies consumed in the production process that do not become part of the end product.
    • Maintenance professionals use MRO items to maintain company structures, equipment, and assets. Purchases that fall under MRO include maintenance tools and equipment, replacement parts for production equipment, consumables such as personal protective equipment (e.g., safety goggles, work gloves), cleaning products and office supplies.
  • Integrated Supply:
    • Integrated supply chain management refers to an enterprise resource planning approach to supply chain management.
    • Large-scale business strategy that brings as many links of the chain as possible into a closer working relationship with each other. The goal is to improve response time, production time, and reduce costs and waste.
    • Often takes the form of integrated computer systems. For example, the supplier’s computer system may be set up to deliver real-time data to the buyer’s computer. This allows the buyer to know: The current status of all orders., which products are in the supplier’s inventory …
    • Integration, operations, purchasing and distribution are the four elements of the supply chain that work together to establish a path to competition that is both cost-effective and competitive.
    • Integrated supply is the end-to-end process of managing the MRO supply chain (spare parts) through consolidated sourcing practices, storeroom operations, inventory management, data governance, and continuous improvement. The objective is to leverage spend, reduce transactions, and cut inventory and associated costs while eliminating risk around critical spares.

 

  • Carbon Dioxide (CO2):
    • Primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil), solid waste, trees and other biological materials, and also as a result of certain chemical reactions (e.g., manufacture of cement). Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere (or “sequestered”) when it is absorbed by plants as part of the biological carbon cycle.
  • Decarbonization:
    • Reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through the use of low carbon power sources, achieving a lower output of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

 

  • Global Warming: Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.
  • Global Warming potential (GWP): 
    • The heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide(CO2). GWP is 1 for CO2. For other gases it depends on the gas and the time frame.
    • Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e or CO2eq or CO2-e) is calculated from GWP. For any gas, it is the mass of CO2 which would warm the earth as much as the mass of that gas. Thus it provides a common scale for measuring the climate effects of different gases. It is calculated as GWP times mass of the other gas. For example, if a gas has GWP of 100, two tonnes of the gas have CO2e of 200 tonnes.
    • GWP was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases.
  • Greenhouse Gas (GHG):
    • A greenhouse gas is any gaseous compound in the atmosphere that is capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere. By increasing the heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases are responsible for the greenhouse effect, which ultimately leads to global warming.
    • The main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor (which all occur naturally), and fluorinated gases (which are synthetic).
  • F-Gases:
    • Fluorinated gases (F-gases) are man-made gases used in a range of industrial applications. F-gases are often used as substitutes for ozone-depleting substances because they do not damage the atmospheric ozone layer. However, F-gases are powerful greenhouse gases, with an even higher warming potential than carbon dioxide (CO2). They thus contribute greatly to climate change.
    • Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) are for example:
      • Carbon dioxide (CO2)
      • Methane (CH4)
      • Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
      • Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
      • Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
      • Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6)
  • SF6 Gas:
  • Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC):
    • Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are a group of industrial chemicals primarily used for cooling and refrigeration. HFCs were developed to replace stratospheric ozone-depleting substances that are currently being phased out under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
    • Many HFCs are very powerful greenhouse gases and a substantial number are short-lived climate pollutants with a lifetime of between 15 and 29 years in the atmosphere.