Sainsbury’s to rollout pioneering heat recycling technology to up to 100 stores
Green business news – by Thomas McMullan
23rd July 2014
A UK company that has developed a ground-breaking ‘heat recycling’ technology is embarking on a major rollout of its innovative system across Sainsbury’s stores.
London-based Geoscart plans to install its pioneering clean technology, which is based on technology used in the gas and oil sector, across up to 100 Sainsbury’s shops over the next three to four years.
Innovative heat recovery
Green lending
The first phase of the rollout is being facilitated through a new £15 million loan fund managed by the Macquarie bank that will enable the retailer to cover the initial capital outlay of installations.
Geoscart has already installed or has under contract 40 megawatt (MW) of its technology, which qualifies for the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive, across 14 Sainsbury’s stores. Sainsbury’s has earmarked a further 15 stores to be fitted with the Geoscart technology by the end of the year. Once installed the systems will be managed and maintained by British Gas.
Innovative heat recovery
The unique Geoscart technology resembles geothermal systems and uses heat-exchange technology to capture wasted heat from refrigeration systems – such as those found in supermarkets – then store it underground, before allowing it to be pumped back to the surface. The technology enables commercial-scale ground-source heat exchange with much less surface land use than traditional methods and typically cuts energy consumption by more than 30 per cent, according to the company.
“We developed the baseline technology from the oil and gas sector and have successfully applied it to the retail-consumer space,” said Grahame Newton, ceo of Geoscart.
The hardware is combined with sophisticated software and data management systems that allow the owner to actively check on the proportion of waste heat captured underground or recycled back into the building for warmth. Monitoring thermal energy – as opposed to electricity – is something the company claims hasn’t been done before.
“Exciting development”
Paul Crew, head of sustainability, engineering and energy at Sainsbury’s said the supermarket was “delighted” to be at the forefront of the technology.
“We developed the baseline technology from the oil and gas sector and have successfully applied it to the retail-consumer space,” said Grahame Newton, ceo of Geoscart.
The hardware is combined with sophisticated software and data management systems that allow the owner to actively check on the proportion of waste heat captured underground or recycled back into the building for warmth. Monitoring thermal energy – as opposed to electricity – is something the company claims hasn’t been done before.
Geoscart said it was looking to rollout its technology to other retailers and already had a pipeline of planned installation of more than 100 MW across different sectors over the next four years.
The finance agreement with Macquarie Lending means that “significant funds” will become available for Sainsbury’s and other retailers looking to get the system installed.
“Exciting development”
“This is an exciting development in the area of distributed and renewable energy finance,” Nikolaus Woloszczuk, co-head of Macquarie Lending Europe, said. “We are pleased to support the upscaling of emerging technologies that allow users to lower energy bills and minimise carbon emissions on a mass scale.”
Paul Crew, head of sustainability, engineering and energy at Sainsbury’s said the supermarket was “delighted” to be at the forefront of the technology.
“I hope that with Geoscart’s help we’ll now see more retailers following suit,” he said.
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Geoscart’s heat-exchange technology captures wasted heat from refrigeration systems, stores it underground and pumps it back up for heating
