Disneyland Paris is proud to announce that it is building one of the largest solar canopy plants in all of Europe!
The solar plant will be developed in collaboration with Urbasolar. It will technically result in enough renewable clean energy to power 17% of the resort – equivalent to the annual energy consumption of a small city!
The project is another step in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and part of a global effort to our long-term goals. In total, it will encompass 17 hectares (42 acres) of solar canopies, using 67,500 solar panels for a production of 31 gigawatt-hours per year.
Still, did you know that Disneyland Paris Parks and the Disneyland Hotel are already fed by geothermal energy? Villages Nature Paris is now using naturally occurring underground heat and steam. It will help cover heating needs for the resort’s hot water and heating system?
The first commercial sand-based thermal energy storage system in the world. Polar Night Energy’s system, based on its patented technology, has gone online on the site of a power plant operated by utility Vatajankoski.
The system can discharge a maximum of 100kW of heat power.
Has a total energy capacity of 8MWh, equating to up to 80 hours’ storage duration. Finland want to scale the system to one a thousand times bigger, or 8GWh.
This innovation is a part of the smart and green energy transition. According to the developers, heat storages can significantly help to increase intermittent renewables in the electrical grid. At the same time we can prime the waste heat to usable level to heat a city.
Vatajankoski also uses the heat provided by the storage to prime the waste heat recovered from their data servers so that it can also be fed into the district heating network.
It is the second major thermal storage facility based on a unique technological solution that has progressed this week.
Swedish public utility Vattenfall is about to start filling a 200MW-rated thermal energy storage facility, effectively a giant water tank, in Berlin.
Why have supermarkets been so slow to act –
For most people, a trip to the shops is about picking up the weekly groceries. Customers rarely a concern for the huge amount of power needed to keep the building running and the food fresh.
As electricity bills rise, shop owners are keen to cut costs where they can. This is why we’d recommend solar panels for all supermarkets. Solar panels are the future to save money on energy and provide some energy independence.
How much energy do supermarkets need?
- Supermarkets are energy intensive businesses.
- Food retailers account for 3% of the UK’s electricity consumption.
- Supermarkets spend an average 1.6% of their net sales on energy bills each year.
- Electricity consumption varies from around 700 kWh/m2 in hypermarkets to 2,000 kWh/m2 in convenience stores.
- The average supermarket uses 8,385 GWh of electricity per year.
What is all this energy used for?
- 60% of power is used in refrigeration.
- 20% is used for lighting,
- The remaining is used for ventilation, hot food etc.
Solar is great for supplying the store’s electricity demand. Spirit can help on the lighting front, replacing all your lights with LED equivalents at no upfront cost.
Why is solar right for supermarkets?
Supermarkets have many attributes that make them prime candidates to benefit from the solar revolution:
large rooftops to house a powerful PV system; long term premises; direct relationship with ever more environmentally conscious customers; electricity consumption likely to rise with EV charging…
Many big supermarket chains are embracing solar power. Tesco aims to generate 10% of its energy demand on site by 2030. Aldi has rolled out solar panels across over 240 of its UK stores.
What of other supermarkets?
Most likely they are too busy pleasing shareholders. Not really willing to invest in their communities and help to bring down our reliance on gas and hence the cost of fuel. I have boycotted Sainsbury’s as they do not pay their staff enough and they have too many diesel delivery vans polluting our streets. Come on Supermarkets! Cover your massive warehouses with solar panels. You can put them on your hypermarket sites and cover your carparks like Disney.
As you all know EVERY LITTLE HELPS! Just look at Disneyland Paris
A story by Michael Fitzalan
