With energy costs on the rise and increasing pressure on companies to meet sustainability goals, energy efficiency has become essential for the cold chain and controlled-environment industries.  The Controlled Environment Building Association (CEBA), part of the Global Cold Chain Alliance, focuses on advancing cold chain infrastructure by supporting the design, construction, and maintenance of cold storage facilities and other controlled environment buildings.  Through its Conference & Expo, CEBA connects industry professionals, shares best practices, and promotes innovations that enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability across temperature-controlled facilities.

CEBA values sustainable design and improving facility resiliency, emphasizing the value of proactive planning to reduce costs, streamline workflows, and implement energy-efficient solutions like Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology.  The growing demand for energy and strain on the grid has sparked discussions at the event around alternatives such as solar power, natural gas generators, lithium batteries, and the construction of modern, efficient cold storage facilities to replace aging infrastructure.  Solutions like TES help ensure consistent temperature control, operational reliability, demand reduction, and lowered energy consumption, supporting the cold chain industry’s shift toward greater sustainability and resilience.

With a record-breaking 500+ attendees at the 44th CEBA Conference & Expo, Viking Cold Solutions had the opportunity to network with decision makers, executives, and industry leaders.  CEBA drives industry progress by fostering collaboration, encouraging innovation in facility design and construction, and supporting businesses in reducing costs and environmental impact.  The conference also celebrated industry excellence with the Built by the Best Awards.  Viking Cold Solutions congratulates Americold/Stellar on their win in the over $35M category for their ASRS facility in Russellville, AR, featuring 42,000 pallet positions, 136,000 square feet, and 140-foot clear heights.  By supporting the development of modern, resilient facilities during events like their annual conference, CEBA strengthens the entire cold chain infrastructure to meet evolving demands.

Viking Cold Solutions recently attended the Refrigerating Engineers and Technicians Association (RETA) National Conference in Grapevine, Texas, to learn more about emerging technologies, such as newer refrigerants and control systems, and their impact on industrial refrigeration. The RETA Conference provides valuable professional development and features a variety of workshops, hands-on training, and technical presentations geared toward builders, operators, and technicians within the temperature control industry.

The RETA Conference sets the highest industry standards where companies can connect and collaborate with their peers to resolve specific challenges to their operations. Attending the conference helped our team gain insight into the industry’s current challenge of increasing efficiency in refrigeration. Viking Cold Solutions exhibited our Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology at the conference and engaged with like-minded professionals about the latest products and services in industrial refrigeration. Our TES makes the world’s refrigeration systems more efficient and resilient while protecting product quality and reducing energy costs by 20%-30% or more.

The Viking Cold team connected with many of our customers and engaged with new potential clients who are also focused on energy efficiency and demand management. We had insightful conversations about our TES solutions and how they can be used in various processes to benefit industrial refrigeration. Our customers value our commitment to sustainability and see us as a trusted partner who is at the forefront of refrigeration and cold storage technology.

Viking Cold Solutions proudly supported the 10th Anniversary of Feeding Northeast Florida and their event celebrating the grand opening of their new distribution center on Saturday, September 28th.  For the past decade, Feeding Northeast Florida has been fighting hunger across the region, where more than 270,000 residents face food insecurity every day.

Last year alone, the food bank distributed nearly 35 million pounds of food, and the need continues to grow as 1 in 5 children and 1 in 8 adults in Florida face food insecurity.  These people rely on Feeding Northeast Florida for access to fresh, healthy groceries instead of having to make a choice between nourishment and other expenses like healthcare, housing, and utilities.

In partnership with Feeding Northeast Florida, Viking Cold Solutions installed a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system which will lower energy costs, improve food quality, and allow the food bank to feed more of their neighbors.  With TES technology, Feeding Northeast Florida will be able to extend its reach and serve more residents by redirecting the savings from reduced utility expenses to providing more meals to those in need.

At the celebration, Viking Cold Solutions’ Founder and Chairman, Paul Robbins, was recognized for his accomplishments in the logistics and cold storage industry including his invention and patenting of Thermal Energy Storage technology.

We are grateful to Feeding Northeast Florida for their partnership and commitment to addressing hunger in the community.  At Viking Cold Solutions, we are dedicated to strengthening these food bank partnerships to help feed more Americans and reduce food insecurity across North America.

The 2024 Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) Convention, held in Bonita Springs, Florida, faced an unexpected interruption due to the approach of Hurricane Helene.  As always, the GCCA stepped up their game in the face of adversity and pivoted to deliver an outstanding event.  Viking Cold Solutions also stayed the course and was able to engage with like-minded companies to evaluate new technologies and strategies for navigating the cold chain industry.

The GCCA Convention is an annual event for advancing the cold chain, fostering collaboration and innovation while promoting sustainable practices.  It brings industry leaders together to exchange insights and best practices on improving temperature-controlled logistics, reducing carbon emissions, and enhancing operational efficiency.  With ever-evolving regulations affecting everything from energy efficiency to food safety, staying informed is essential for companies aiming to optimize operations and minimize environmental impact.

The market is evolving quickly, driven by new innovations and the growing need for efficiency and sustainability.  To stay ahead, technology-driven companies are exploring advancements in energy management, facility monitoring, data analysis, and incorporating artificial intelligence to optimize results.  Viking Cold Solutions remains at the forefront of these technologies, driving reductions in energy costs for our clients of 20% to 30% or more.

We had a great experience at this year’s GCCA Convention and are grateful to the GCCA for powering through the conference despite the threat of a hurricane making landfall.  As always, it was an invaluable opportunity to connect, exchange ideas, and explore innovations in the cold chain.  Viking Cold continues to partner with industry leaders who advance the adoption of energy-efficient and sustainable solutions to their business challenges.

Photos by Global Cold Chain Alliance.

Food Logistics honored Viking Cold’s Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology with the Top 3PL & Cold Storage Provider award for 2024! This award recognizes industry leading third-party logistics and cold storage providers in the cold food and beverage industry. Our TES technology was highlighted for making the world’s refrigeration and cold storage systems more efficient, flexible, resilient, and sustainable.

With TES technology, cold storage operators can increase refrigeration system efficiency by 20-30% and cut energy costs up to 50% while better protecting products. Maintaining consistent temperature control, despite mechanical issues, grid interruptions or natural disasters, is critical for preserving product quality and safety. Our TES systems integrate easily and have been installed in commercial and industrial frozen food warehouses and distribution centers around the world.

“3PLs and cold storage providers remain a key puzzle piece to building and nurturing partnerships, cultivating resilience and helping companies in the cold food space overcome supply chain disruptions,” says Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive. “Seventy-six percent of the winners plan to invest in software solutions this year. This is indicative of how forward-thinking these 3PLs and cold storage providers are, and how despite disruptions and other challenges, they continue to forge ahead.”

Food manufacturers, 3PLs, supermarkets, and restaurants adoption of Thermal Energy Storage technology is helping the broader food industry decarbonize today. By leveraging TES, these businesses reduce energy usage, lower their carbon footprint, and more efficiently store renewable energy.

Viking Cold Solutions provides innovative technology to support a more sustainable and resilient cold chain. To see how we can help optimize your facility, check out cold storage benefits of TES. For more information on Thermal Energy Storage contact sales@vikingcold.com.

Left to right: Jen Szaro, James Bell, Rebecca Troutfetter

Viking Cold Solutions is recognized by the Association of Energy Services Professionals’ (AESP) inaugural Innovations in Demand Flexibility award today at their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas.  The award was received by James Bell, Viking Cold Solutions’ President and CEO, and presented by Jen Szaro, President & CEO of AESP, and Rebecca Troutfetter, Vice President of Engineering & Corporate Impact at CLEAResults.

AESP, a leading industry trade group advancing the energy industry, introduced the Innovations in Demand Flexibility award this year.  This competition for the award spanned various demand flexibility programs, such as renewable energy projects, distributed energy resource programs, demand response initiatives, microgrids, decarbonization efforts, and electrification programs.

Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology consistently achieves positive impacts on business operations, the electricity grid, and the environment.  Beyond its energy demand management and electrical efficiency achievements, TES helps address critical issues like food waste and food insecurity by better preserving food quality while also conserving electricity.  Additionally, TES’s unique ability to store and more efficiently utilize renewable energy assists with efforts to accelerate the decarbonization of the power grid, contributing to a more sustainable energy landscape.  Viking Cold Solutions monitors all sites 24/7/365 to ensure clients’ peace of mind, and all parties can view performance metrics and historical data through the cloud-based portal.

Some examples of demand flexibility and efficiency include the deployment of Viking Cold’s innovative energy technology in regional food banks from coast to coast which resulted in quantifiable and meaningful positive impacts.  By reducing energy costs, TES technology provides hundreds of thousands of additional meals to Americans suffering from food insecurity. This further demonstrates Viking Cold’s commitment to addressing energy and environmental challenges while creating a positive economic and social impact through practical local initiatives.

Viking Cold Solutions builds lasting partnerships with our clients and stays engaged throughout the life of facilities with ongoing data collection, optimization initiatives, and utility incentive programs.  Through these initiatives, TES technology has saved over 44 million kWh of electricity, avoided over 34 thousand tons of GHG emissions, and earned millions of dollars in incentives for our clients.

For further details on the AESP Energy Awards, please visit AESP.

To learn more about Viking Cold’s technology and how it can reduce energy consumption to enhance the sustainability of cold storage facilities, reach out to Viking Cold today!

In recent years the popularity of frozen food has steadily increased in the United States.  However, during the pandemic, frozen food experienced a surge in demand.  The Food Institute reports that frozen food sales increased by 21%, with the pandemic serving as a major contributing factor to this growth.  The pandemic-induced lockdowns and social distancing measures led to significant changes in people’s eating habits, and many turned to frozen foods for their convenience, long shelf life, nutritional value, and ability to be stored in bulk.

Source: Quartz

Despite a steady increase in dollar sales, unit sales of frozen food fell in 2021 and 2022 by 3.2% and 5.1%, respectively, highlighting the potential impact of inflation on frozen food costs, reported the Food & Beverage Insider.  Notwithstanding these declines, unit sales are still higher than they were before the pandemic, demonstrating that the demand for frozen foods remains strong – in part thanks to millennials who have now become frozen food’s largest consumers.

According to the Food Navigator, older millennial shoppers, who are approaching the age of 40, represent 48% of the consumers of frozen foods.  This generation prioritizes health and wellness and values a wider range of culinary options that use premium ingredients with fewer additives and preservatives.  Alongside nutrition, they also demand convenience and sustainability in their food choices.  With over 3,700 options in the frozen food section, there is something for every taste and lifestyle, notes the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association.

The growing popularity of frozen food has led 29% of consumers to expand their freezer space since the pandemic began, reported the American Frozen Food Institute.  As demand for frozen food products increases, retailers are seeking ways to optimize their freezer sections while also reducing energy consumption for higher quality and more efficient frozen food storage.  Companies like Viking Cold Solutions are helping retailers and distributors to not only improve the efficiency of their cold storage system by up to 50% but also increase facility resiliency.  These advancements indicate a promising and sustainable future for frozen food.

With all the demands on consumers’ lives, the greater convenience and quality of frozen foods meet a growing priority.  The frozen food industry now has innovative new technologies to sustainably address consumers’ needs while reducing energy costs.  Given the challenges of inflation and an unstable economy, it will be interesting to observe the further developments of frozen foods and cold storage technologies over the next few years.

Learn more about Viking Cold’s sustainable Thermal Energy Storage technology here.

The Houston Food Bank distributes over 158 million meals every year to people struggling with hunger.  With the help of more than 1,600 community partners to combat hunger and food insecurity, the Houston Food Bank provides individuals with food assistance as well as programs and services targeted at achieving long-term food stability.

According to the Houston Food Bank, around 1 million people in southeast Texas are food insecure – 1 in 7 people face hunger as well as 1 in 5 children.  Following the pandemic, food insecurity and unemployment increased dramatically.  53 million people sought assistance from food banks and neighborhood programs in 2021 to put food on their table.

To help manage energy costs, the Houston Food Bank is partnering with Viking Cold Solutions and plans to install Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology in their temperature-controlled facilities.  TES systems are a cost-effective way to store and manage the large amounts of energy required by refrigeration equipment in cold storage facilities.

Developed and patented by Viking Cold, the TES system will reduce electrical consumption and demand during peak energy usage hours inside the Houston Food Bank’s cold storage warehouse and will improve temperature stability inside their freezer.  Cold storage facilities, such as frozen food warehouses, have the highest energy demand per cubic foot of any building.  During peak energy use periods, they can account for up to 70 percent of the total electricity bill for organizations.

The TES system’s energy savings will enable the Houston Food Bank to offer thousands of additional meals every year and feed more people.  Viking Cold’s partnership will help the Houston Food Bank better manage its energy usage by providing cutting-edge technology that will benefit the organization and support its mission for many years to come.

Viking Cold Solutions has partnered with food programs across the United States as part of the Feeding America network, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.  For more information about Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage systems, click here.

Energy storage is a rapidly evolving technology and has been advancing to the forefront of the electrical industry, shifting the focus to the effective integration of renewable energy.  Various international enterprises recognized the increasing value of energy storage and have created World Energy Storage Day to commemorate its significance.  This global movement is celebrated on September 22^nd every year by policy officials, associations, and industries working to promote and adopt energy storage, e-mobility, and green technology for a more sustainable future.

According to the Energy Storage Association, energy storage is an enabling technology; it saves consumers money, improves reliability and resilience, integrates generation sources, and helps reduce environmental impacts.  It’s a key element for the entire grid, augmenting resources from wind, solar, and hydropower as well as nuclear and fossil fuels, demand-side resources, and system efficiency assets.  By tapping into energy storage during outages, businesses can continue normal operations and avoid costly disruptions.  When demand shifts and baseload resources can’t react quickly enough, energy storage can inject or extract energy to match the load as needed, making the grid more responsive and reducing the need to build backup power plants.

The effectiveness of energy storage is based on its ability to respond quickly to changes in demand, the rate at which energy is lost during the storage process, the total amount of energy it can store, and the speed at which it can be recharged.  More than 90% of global grid battery storage is dominated by lithium-ion batteries, which are today’s most widely used battery storage alternative, reports the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.  However, there are multiple types of energy storage that can provide large-storage capacities, such as pumped hydro, compressed air, and thermal.

With the rapid development of energy storage, business owners and policymakers are looking towards more environmentally friendly sources of energy storage beyond lithium-ion batteries.  According to Precedence Research, the global energy storage systems market size is projected to surpass $435 billion by 2030 and grow at a CAGR of over 8% from 2022 to 2030.

Record investments in energy storage are being fueled by declining costs and new incentives.  As reported by the Environmental Defense Fund, costs for energy storage have declined by 74% since 2013 and are projected to decline 8% per year through the mid 2020s.

In fact, the cost of some storage has decreased so quickly that many utilities are switching to renewable energy combined with storage instead of investing in expensive new natural gas power plants.  Over the next ten years, combining energy storage with renewable energy sources could completely change the way we purchase, sell, and utilize energy.  State and Federal laws, such as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, are also opening new market opportunities and revenue streams, which will be the primary driver of growth outside of cost.  Incentives can bridge market gaps and assist in further market adoption.

In the U.S., certain industries such as cold storage, consume over $50 billion in energy annually.  Refrigeration energy cost is one of the top operating expenses which drives demand from operators for energy reduction technologies.  These businesses include over 4,200 cold storage warehouses, more than 40,000 grocery store freezers, and over 620,000 restaurant freezers.  To help these businesses, Viking Cold Solutions developed and commercialized thermal energy storage technologies that offer both sustainability benefits and deliver proven 20% to 35% energy savings in temperature-controlled environments.

With the growing concern over the prices of fossil fuels, their environmental impacts, and the capacity and resilience of energy grids around the world, stakeholders are increasingly turning their attention to energy storage solutions.  To learn about how thermal energy storage technology reduces energy use and carbon emissions while increasing resiliency, click here.

Energy costs around the U.S. have been climbing leaving consumers wondering “how high will they go?” States such as Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California have the highest electricity rates in the country, with California as the second-largest energy consumer in the nation after Texas. In the last five years, electricity costs in the Los Angeles area exceeded the national average by 34% or more since 2018 – see Chart 1.

Chart 1: ­Average prices for electricity U.S. & Los Angeles

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Despite California’s high-energy consumption, its per capita energy consumption is less than most states due in part to its mild climate and its energy efficiency programs. The Golden State primarily produces electricity from solar, geothermal, and biomass energy, making it one of the most energy-efficient states in the country – but that isn’t enough for California. The state has committed to reaching a goal of 100% renewable and zero-carbon electricity by 2045, and the California Energy Commission (CEC) is leading the way.

The CEC supports energy research and development programs to spur innovation in energy efficiency and has lately completed a major study on the route to zero net energy (ZNE), which includes Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage (TES) in the blueprint for a path to net zero emissions for commercial buildings. The Viking Cold TES system was installed in the walk-in grocery freezer at a San Francisco Whole Foods store. This installation included Phase Change Materials (PCM) mounted on the ceiling of the walk-in freezer as well as cloud-based intelligent controls integrated with the existing refrigeration controls.

According to the report, refrigeration accounts for a majority of the store’s electrical load, therefore thermal PCM, also known as thermal energy storage or TES, is a promising method for storing small amounts of excess energy. TES allows refrigeration compressors to run less often when energy costs are high (and energy production is low) and to run more often and store thermal energy when energy costs are low (and there is excess generation). This reduces cycling of the compressors and refrigeration energy costs, ultimately improving the efficiency of existing refrigeration systems. This is done by increasing the percentage of the total refrigeration run time that occurs during hours with lower ambient temperatures, thereby running the compressors at higher efficiency levels – see Chart 2.

Chart 2: ­Plot comparing the predicted baseline energy with post-retrofit energy consumption for Viking Cold System

Source: CEC Report, Figure D-9

TES technology combines intelligence with PCM to maximize the energy efficiency of the refrigeration system. Viking Cold PCM cells add thermal mass to a room, providing the ability to hold designated temperatures for much longer periods, which helps reduce refrigeration runtimes. Intelligent controls and an energy-management system help maintain a constant temperature and alert operators about any mechanical malfunction or power outage. The CEC study concluded that TES technology produced 25% energy savings and was proven as an applicable energy conservation measure to help achieve California’s energy efficiency goals. The results of this study were released by the CEC as a blueprint for a successful path to ZNE commercial buildings in California, but this blueprint could easily be one for the entire world.

Read more about Viking Cold’s approach to cold storage efficiency here. For additional information about the CEC study, click here.