Carrier’s landmark unit, installed by MCI 34 at food retailer Super U’s branch in Aimargues, France, was a MiniCO2OL Compact system featuring CO2OLtec Evo technology. Engineered to deliver sustainability gains via the use of natural refrigerant CO2, the system is ideally suited to refrigerate the 1,500 square meters dedicated to fresh products in Super U’s newly remodelled store.

“Since 2004, Carrier Commercial Refrigeration has been a segment leader in using CO2 natural refrigerant to drive down energy usage and costs for our customers, while also yielding attractive sustainability benefits,” said David Appel, president, Carrier Commercial Refrigeration.

The MiniCO2OL Compact system offers a refrigeration capacity of 18 to 202 kilowatts (kW), providing temperatures between -33 C and 3 C. The inclusion of Carrier’s CO2OLtec Evo technology and its innovative modulating vapour ejector helps to increase the efficiency of its transcritical CO2 systems by up to 30%, while continuously and smoothly adapting to changes in operating conditions.

The very first Carrier CO2 system was installed 18 years ago in a supermarket in Switzerland and continued to gain traction thanks in part to the introduction of the CO2OLtec range. Carrier Commercial Refrigeration’s commitment to natural refrigerant systems was further reinforced in 2010 when Green & Cool – a specialist in cutting-edge CO2 racks – joined Carrier.

Today, Carrier’s CO2OLtec system helps customers achieve average energy savings of up to 30% compared to traditional hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) units in mild to cold climates. This creates attractive lifecycle costs and short return-on-investment periods, while contributing to Carrier's 2030 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals to reduce its customers’ carbon footprint by more than one gigaton. The systems are also part of Carrier’s Energy Optimization Program, which aims to deliver sustainable savings to customers.