Danfoss Smart Store cuts energy use by 60%

DENMARK: Danfoss claims that the real-world Smart Store at its headquarters site in Nordborg, Denmark, has achieved 60% lower net energy use than benchmark stores.

Opened in 2023, the Smart Store operates as a COOP 365 discount supermarket with a Danfoss Application Development Centre, where Danfoss engineers work with customers and partners to test, integrate and optimise technologies in real-life applications.

Operated by BALS, Denmark’s largest independent retail cooperative, the Smart Store is demonstrating what can be achieved when proven technologies for refrigeration, heating, heat recovery, electronic controls, sensors, cloud-based monitoring, and energy management are integrated under real operating conditions.

The 1,500m² store brings together CO2 refrigeration, electronic controls and sensors, heat recovery, cloud-based monitoring, and solar energy. Heat recovery is a central part of the concept. Heat from the CO2 refrigeration system is reused for heating and hot water, while surplus heat is supplied to the local district heating network. 

Since opening, 130,000kWh of recovered heat has been used for heating the store, with an additional 50,000kWh supplied to the local district heating network. The heat-recovery solution has an average payback time of three years.

Solar panels cover 38% of total electricity demand and produced 100,000kWh of electricity in 2025, of which 25,000kWh was supplied back to the grid.

An independently verified Danfoss case study found that over a 15-year system lifetime, using projected Danish grid emission factors, the Smart Store can achieve 39% lower emissions than a modern CO2-based reference store and 68% lower emissions than an HFC-based reference store.

“The Smart Store demonstrates that the technologies needed to significantly reduce supermarket energy use and emissions already exist,” commented Danfoss Climate Solutions president Kristian Strand.  “By bringing refrigeration, heating, controls and energy management together in one system, retailers can improve efficiency, lower operating costs and strengthen competitiveness. The potential is even greater in larger stores and more carbon-intensive energy systems, where closer grid integration can further improve how energy is used.”

Since opening in 2023, more than 4,500 customers, partners, policymakers and students have visited the Smart Store ADC.

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