Delhaize to extend CO2 store portfolio in 2017

Delhaize operates about 760 stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. 140 of these are Delhaize-operated, while the others are run by affiliates. 74 Delhaize-operated stores use natural refrigerants, of which 14 are CO₂ transcritical systems. “In 2016, we added six,” Schalenbourg says. The retailer – which merged with Ahold to form Ahold-Delhaize in July 2016 – is aiming to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 20% by 2020. A key part of Delhaize’s strategy for achieving this is to replace HFC installations with natural refrigerant alternatives, namely CO₂ and hydrocarbons. New store in Denderleeuw delivers energy savings In September 2016, Delhaize opened a new store in Denderleeuw, 30km from Brussels. “It has a new full CO₂transcritical installation, with refrigeration, heating and air conditioning coming from the same rack. It uses heat reclaim, so heating and hot water are both centralised. In consumption, when everything’s operational, previously we used about 350 amperes. Now we use 170A. So we reduced [energy consumption] by half. That’s a tremendous result and shows that we’re going in the right direction,” Schalenbourg enthuses. Smaller plug-in cabinets using hydrocarbons often complement the CO₂ racks. This gives Delhaize the flexibility to run temporary product promotions in prominent areas of the stores. One exciting project in the pipeline for 2017 is an urban farm, to be built on the roof of a store in the Brussels suburb of Boondael. Salad grown on the rooftop will be sold in the commercial space below.   Read More