Pioneering geo-exchange system is a major success for Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s store at Crayford in Greater London is looking to reduce its overall energy consumption by around 30 to 40% using the ground to supply heat during the Winter and to store rejected heat during the cooling season. The geo-exchange system for this project was supplied by Greenfield Energy in partnership with Armstrong Integrated. Following the success of this installation. Sainsbury’s plans to install similar technology at other key stores as part of its carbon-reduction strategy.
At the heart of the solution is the Geoscart ground-source heat-exchanger system designed and supplied by Greenfield Energy. It involves a sub-surface array of closed-loop borehole heat exchangers designed to match the building-services design.
Greenfield Energy partnered with Armstrong Integrated for the manufacture and delivery of the Geoscart surface system. Armstrong’s offsite fabrication ensured the build quality and reliability of the installed systems. It also guaranteed effective integration of the on-site generation elements with other energy-efficient components such as intelligent variable-speed pumps with efficient pumping strategies and advanced controls technology according to the demanding Geoscart system specifications.
Greg Davis, director with Greenfield Energy, comments, ‘This is a pioneering move by Sainsbury’s, and the installation at Crayford has exceeded all expectations. Our Geoscart system is ideally suited to supermarkets, and It’s very gratifying to finally see it installed and proven so smoothly.’
Wayne Rose, marketing director with Armstrong, adds, ‘The technical challenges of integrating renewable systems are frequently under-estimated, with the result that installations can fail to optimise their full potential. Greenfield Energy’s enthusiasm for working in partnership, however, has enabled our companies to collaborate to ensure that the carbon reductions gained through the use of renewable-energy sources are combined with further savings made possible through intelligent integration. The result is a highly effective solution which will deliver tangible improvements in carbon impact.’
