Federica Fuligni, from Rina Consulting, speaks on this interview about the main role of RINA in the SUPER-HEERO project, their expectations and the work they will carry out on energy efficiency renovation actions for supermarkets.
Q. What are your expectations from the SUPER-HEERO project?
A. SUPER-HEERO is a really ambitious project which happened at a very delicate moment. The Covid-19 situation has put under mayor stress the food retail sector during several months, and the supermarket owners and workers became our personal “superheroes” during the pandemic. Now, they have the capability to become climate change heroes too.
I have had the honour to follow SUPER-HEERO since the very beginning. The project offers a ground-breaking change of perspective and dialogue among the supermarkets actors (customers, owners and energy managers, technology manufacturers): my expectation is to establish and demonstrate the profitability of the virtuous cycle consisting in financial schemes for supermarkets owners and technology providers, loyalty programs and rewards for customers and energy efficiency renovation actions.
Q. What is the main role of RINA in SUPER-HEERO?
A. RINA is the second industrial player in Europe regarding number of H2020 projects participation. We have now over 187 ongoing H2020 projects and our roles are several and yet very relevant as we try to involve most of our business units which are experts on their field. In SUPER-HEERO we are working in two key areas: the management of energy efficiency renovations actions in the supermarkets (which goes from the definition of solutions, engagement of local manufacturers and distributors, EPC drafting and implementation at the supermarkets) and in the technical area related to the selection of innovative technologies for the supermarkets, drafting of high-level design, perform energy audits and plan the implementation at the supermarket sites.
We are the leaders for the Work Package “Energy efficiency renovation actions for supermarkets”, which aims to define the most relevant and easy replicable energy efficiency measures in the different supermarkets which are participating in the project, taking into consideration the type of services they offer and their building typology, the equipment already in place, the energy demand and the renovation needs. As part of the project, we will also perform energy audits and install smart meters. The identified energy efficiency measures will be promoted via SUPER-HEERO financing schemes.
While I am in charge of the management, the technical activities are led by Giorgio Bonvicini from Environment & Climate Change unit and Carlo Macciò from Industrial Design & CAE unit.
Q. Can you talk a bit about the work you are planning to do on energy efficiency renovation actions for supermarkets?
A. We have already defined a catalogue of solutions that are relevant for supermarket renovations, that can be downloaded in this link. At this moment in RINA Consulting we are busy working on energy audits, from which we will have a better estimate on the energy demand and potentialities for each site. They will be the starting point of energy performance contracting (EPC) and high-level design at the sites (the latter also in charge of RINA Consulting). The implementation of the measures at each site will also be one of RINA Consulting key roles in the project.
Q. What do you think will be the main outcomes of the SUPER-HEERO project?
A. Validating energy efficiency improvements that can be obtained through non-traditional financing methods and loyalty schemes. RINA is enthusiastic to support this implementation and we hope that SUPER-HEERO will open the doors for replication in many other supermarkets around Europe and the World!