February 11, 2008—Wal-Mart has opened a new store in Romeoville, Illinois, that is designed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use 25 percent less energy than a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter. The Romeoville store is the first of four second -generation “High-Efficiency prototype (HE.2)” Supercenters expected to open this year.
The HE.2 will use many of the energy improvements Wal-Mart developed in its first-generation High- Efficiency (HE.1) series as well as introduce new and improved technologies, such as a state-of-the art secondary loop refrigeration system.
The 5 percent improvement in energy efficiency over the HE.1 stores comes from a streamlined design of the water-source heating, cooling and refrigeration system, coupled with the new secondary refrigeration loop, says Wal-Mart. This is reportedly the first time secondary loop technology has been paired with a water-source system.
The store components include:
- 100 percent integrated water-source format heating, cooling, and refrigeration system, where water is used to heat and cool the building;
- State-of-the-art secondary refrigeration loop that reduces refrigerant by 90 percent;
- Motion-activated light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in refrigerated and freezer cases, plus additional glass doors on deli and dairy cases;
- Optimized pump package that is 50 percent smaller than the HE.1 store and uses even less copper piping;
- Industry-leading daylight harvesting technology;
- Reflective white membrane roof;
- Recycled construction materials such as fly-ash, slag, integrally colored concrete floors, and plastic baseboards and chair rails; and
- Sensor-activated low-flow bathroom faucets and waterless urinals.
