At the ATMOsphere Europe 2012 conference in November 2012, R744.com spoke to Torben Hansen about Advansor’s strategy for the rollout of CO₂ transcritical systems. Mr Hansen described the current situation and future prospects for CO₂ transcritical technology in Germany, France, UK, Switzerland, Poland and the US.

R744.com: Could you please give us a basic picture of the market of CO₂ transcritical technology in Europe? How do you see the market now?

Hansen: The market is holding back a little. I think retailers are waiting for the new F-Gas Regulation to see how their competitors are doing and to see how their competitors are performing not only with regards to refrigeration but also with regards to the normal commercial daily business.

At the moment, we have seen two of the bigger retailers in Europe suffering from the worldwide economy. So that has an impact on their total investment and what we see is that there are fewer new stores and more renovation and refurbishment projects. So in 2012 things are slowing down a little. But if you read the textbook this is very normal for new technologies in their first move up.

R744.com: Do you see a similar “holding back” attitude for CO₂ refrigeration technology in places other than Northern Europe?

Hansen: Advansor is active in Europe as well as North America. In the North American market, this is our first year and it will definitely pick up. If the market picks up in North America, it will be to an extent that it will exceed our manufacturing capacity in Europe. We are already prepared for manufacturing of the systems in the U.S. using U.S. standards and U.S. suppliers. Moreover, European retailers are also active in the Far East and we need to work with them for global solutions.

In the U.S., there is increasing awareness and retailers are open to listening. Probably there is less of a “wait and see” attitude than last year or the years before. I sense a comprehension and appreciation that we need to do something. We cannot allow business as usual on our environment. And I think it will take up sooner than anybody expected. One or two years ago, we would look at 10 to 15 years schedule for North America, but this is not the time schedule any more. I would say that in the next five years there would be a boom.

R744.com: Does Advansor have a plan to enter the CO₂ refrigeration market in Central and Southern Europe?

Hansen: Not for now, but it will be our next step because the Central and Southern European market will use some of the technologies that are also needed for the North American climate, where we are focusing now. At the moment, we need to have better penetration in the German market. Germany is one of our first priorities in Europe. The penetration rate of transcritical CO₂ systems in the German retail industry is 0,6%, which means out of 26,000 systems, only 160 are transcritical CO₂. It is close to zero penetration.

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