Warehouses consume a lot of energy. In Carlsberg warehouses, it is necessary to keep the humidity in the air down to avoid labels falling off or bottle tops becoming rusty. The humidity in the warehouses is caused by both products and wet pallets. The pallets in the warehouses make up for 70% of the humidity.
Originally when building Carlsberg Denmark's warehouse, big dehumidifying systems were installed. These systems are able to dehumidify 260.000 m3 air/hour, but also cost almost 240.000 Euros a year to in electricity charges to run.
From initial idea to sustainable solution
Recently, however, the Carlsberg Energy Center came up with the idea to air the warehouse with fresh air from the outside instead of using the expensive dehumidifying system. With a 67.000 Euro investment this initial idea was made into a sustainable solution in December 2010. The estimated savings was approximately 267.000 Euros.
After nine months, with continuous optimization of the solution, a projection of the possible saving for a full year shows that the savings are 30% greater than first expected. With this projection, the investment has paid for itself in just 15 weeks.
This is a great example of how a sustainable solution pays itself off with long term savings, and illustrates why it is extremely important to prioritize energy management in Carlsberg. It is not only an important factor in our competitive capacity, but also helps to minimize our CO2 emissions.