The supermarket is the first European firm to take up the environmentally friendly Dragon Power System. Sainsbury's is to trial groundbreaking technology that can capture the energy created by truck movements to generate electricity at its environmentally friendly distribution depot.
The Dragon Power System (DPS), designed in the US, will initially provide 2% of the power required by the supermarket's Northampton depot, due to be opened in September. Vehicles driving over road plates initiate a series of pumping actions that will turn a generator and produce electricity. It says a single truck running over the DPS will produce around 3.3kWh taking into account the number of vehicles running in and out of the depot, the total energy generated would be enough to boil 5.7 million kettles or illuminate 10,000 light bulbs.
Sainsbury's is the first European customer to take up DPS its Northampton site was chosen due to its environmental credentials. The 51,000m2, 24/7 site has been dubbed the UK's most energy-efficient of its kind. Features include a combined heat, cooling and power unit rainwater recycling to cut water consumption by 50% and increased air tightness.
A spokeswoman says 800 jobs will be created at the depot, of which 150 will be driving jobs. It will serve around 50 Sainsbury's stores in the area. Roger Burnley, supply chain director, says: "This trial makes good business and environmental sense for Sainsbury's and the Northampton depot. Not only does it give us the ability to generate a portion of our energy from daily traffic flow, but it also helps reduce our dependency on the national grid and therefore our energy costs."
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