Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

First supermarket to run on 400 kilowatt fuel cell unit

Price Chopper (Schenectady, N.Y.), a Golub Corp. company, is one of the first supermarkets in the U.S. to supply its own power on-site. Using a PureCell Model 400 system from UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp. company, the unit will serve as both a primary and emergency power source at the 69,000-square-foot Colonie, N.Y. store location.

“With our ongoing goals of achieving greater efficiencies at our stores, we fully expect the fuel cell unit to reduce our overall utility costs as well as the store's carbon footprint," says Benny Smith, vp, facilities for the Golub Corp.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the Colonie store with the highest level of GreenChill gold-level certification ever achieved by a supermarket retailer. Only three other stores have achieved such recognition. The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is a voluntary program with the supermarket industry and other stakeholders to promote advanced refrigeration technologies, strategies and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

Fuel cells, which combine hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, heat and water, operate without combustion, so they are virtually pollution-free and comply with emission standards.

In addition to the fuel cell, the store is also equipped with advanced systems in cooling and refrigeration and daylight harvesting, and employs several waste and recycling initiatives. The store will serve as a prototype for future Price Chopper supermarkets.

The Golub Corp. owns and operates 120 Price Chopper grocery stores in New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.