Retailers - especially food retailers - are serious about all types of heat pumps. All major retailers have had some form of trial over the last 10 years – and now after continued innovation many are ready, and need, to commit to heat pumps in numbers.
Since Erda delivered a world’s first at Sainsburys in Crayford – energy savings and carbon reductions have been increasing year-on-year. Now, with over 30MW of heat pump capacity in the estate, every kWh of heating delivered to the store is at least 80% lower in carbon than a traditional gas-fired system.
Customers arrive at store in their EV, they shop under efficient LED lighting and select food from electrically powered freezers with the latest natural refrigerants. They have electric solar panels on the roof providing clean electricity to serve the store, and PPA agreements to deliver large scale wind energy. Smart, efficient heat pumps naturally integrate into their existing energy system – it’s a customer-focused solution and therefore a natural alignment to their corporate objectives of carbon reduction.
A typical food retail chain can use around 2% of the UK’s annual energy demand, so a pipeline of heat pump retrofits has the potential to create thousands of highly skilled British jobs at the same time as improving energy efficiency and locking themselves into a zero carbon pathway.
