The use of batteries, energy storage and district cooling solutions are among the innovations being considered to better integrate the cold chain with the distribution of renewable power
Cold chain operators could play a vital role in generating and storing renewable power as part of plans to decarbonise the UK’s energy system, according to new industry findings.
A Cold Chain Federation report entitled, ‘The Cold Store of 2050’, looks at the opportunities for ensuring that hundreds of temperature-controlled cold stores in operation across the UK can directly benefit from, and be part of more energy efficient systems.
The report said there were already strong examples of how the sector is adopting more sustainable approaches to powering temperature-controlled storage buildings. The growing use of automation and more sophisticated temperature monitoring systems were among the examples given in the report of emerging technologies expected to be increasingly used in the cold chain.
The report also identified opportunities to expand on-site renewable energy generation in cold stores. This could notably include the use of solar panel systems and wind turbines. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) solutions were also identified in the report as a technology that can offer a more efficient alternative to directly taken energy directly from the grid.
Energy storage
Energy storage solutions such as physical batteries are also considered in the report as being potentially important to the cold chain. The findings said they offered an option for recovering waste energy generated from overcooling to reduce demand during peak periods and to allow for greater supplies of renewable power to be used in the sector.
The Cold Chain Federation added that centralised cooling might also be suitable for certain operations whereby a single system can supply refrigeration to multiple businesses and buildings connected together as part of a network.
Tom Southall, policy director with the Cold Chain Federation, said the federation’s latest report looked at the different ways that cold storage facilities might be used as part of the UK’s renewable energy network.
He said, “The cold storage industry encompasses a wide variety of operations and facilities so components of the Cold Store of 2050 will vary for each site: our vision outlines the technologies and opportunities which could be implemented in a typical operation.
Consistent across the board however, is that a series of changes are needed for this vision to become reality, not least for government to ease the planning restrictions currently hampering installation of renewable energy infrastructure and to provide grant funding for large capital energy efficiency investments, particularly for smaller operators. We will be making the case to government for these changes to come to fruition.”
The Cold Store of 2050 report is the fourth release in a series of documents from the Cold Chain Federation looking at how the sector can contribute to the UK’s ambitions to become a net zero carbon economy within less than three decades.
A fifth Net Zero Project report is expected to be published shortly with a focus on ‘The Cold Chain Ecosystem’. The Cold Chain Federation said the findings were expected to set out its work to review and rethink industry practice around review temperature set points with an eye on efficiency.
The emergence of more efficient and accurate refrigeration systems is leading to calls to review what temperatures products should be stored at in the cold chain, the federation added.
It stated, “The Cold Chain Federation is championing a review of commonly specified temperatures in the cold chain. We believe that as confidence grows in the sophistication of our equipment, reducing set points by two degrees is feasible and could usher in a game changing reduction in the energy requirement of the wider temperature-controlled supply chain.”
