The Solar Impulse Foundation’s annual Pioneer Awards,which celebrates organisations implementing ‘Efficient Solutions’ across sectors, honoured the collaboration between BASE Foundation, Danfoss and Aneo Retail in the Building & Construction category, for their flagship Refrigeration-as-a-Service project implemented in different Coop Innlandet shop locations.
Coop Innlandet, one of Norway’s leading food retailers, partnered with ANEO Retail and Danfoss to retrofit and upgrade its refrigeration systems using state-of-the-art technology and natural refrigerants (transcritical CO₂). Refrigeration typically accounts for 30–60% of a supermarket’s total electricity consumption, making it a critical area for efficiency gains. Through a Refrigeration-as-a-Service model, new equipment was deployed across 10 stores without any upfront capital investment from Coop. Instead, Coop pays a monthly fee based on the refrigeration service provided, ensuring predictable costs and high system performance.
This solution aims to streamline operations for customers, mitigate risk, ensure optimal performance, and foster higher levels of customer satisfaction. Currently, the systems are delivering an average of 20% efficiency gains, and up to 50% in some stores, representing more than 6 million kWh of energy saved per year and 1650 tons of CO₂e avoided. For all sites, the systems deployed include CO₂ racks with integrated air-conditioning and heat recovery, remote cabinets, and both heating and ventilation systems. Find more information on the project here.
Emil Baungaard (Manager Strategic Projects and Partnerships, Danfoss Climate Solutions), along with Bertand Piccard (Founder and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation) and Jean-Luc Crucke (Minister of Mobility, Climate and Ecological Transition in charge of Sustainable Development, Belgium Federal Government), during the award ceremony in Brussels, October 2025.
Chief Financial Officer at Coop Innlandet, Laila Hulleberg, commented on the success of the project: “The benefits of choosing EaaS are less capital tied up, better operational predictability, and it also gives us lower energy costs. The model is good for the climate, our economy and with a good business model, we are deploying it to all our stores.”The BASE Foundation, through its flagship initiative the Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) working to mainstream “as-a-service” models for renewable energy and energy efficient systems, provides support for contract design, financing structures, pricing and the consideration of financial mechanisms and regulations.
The BASE Foundation received the Solar Impulse Foundation’s Efficient Solutions Label for its Cooling-as-a-Service model in 2021. Since then, the model has continued to scale globally.
