Adoption rates of transcritical CO2 in European supermarkets vary considerably

Shecco, a group promoting natural refrigerants, recently published “Guide 2012: Natural Refrigerants – Market Growth for Europe”, that seems to reveal a large difference in the adoption rates of transcritical CO2 between European countries.
Shecco, a group promoting natural refrigerants, recently published “Guide 2012: Natural Refrigerants – Market Growth for Europe”, that seems to reveal a large difference in the adoption rates of transcritical CO2 between European countries.
It is claimed that countries such as Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and the UK have 424, 166, 149 and 267 installations respectively, whereas France, Italy and Spain have less than 10 units each. 

Concerns regarding the efficiency of transcritical CO2 technology at higher temperatures have prevented the uptake of this technology in Southern Europe and a lack of training and the high capital cost of natural refrigerant systems are generally seen as major barriers. 

Various incentives have stimulated their uptake in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany; however there are no incentives or regulations in favour of CO2 in the UK where demand was led by retailers alone. 
 
The report claims that transcritical CO2 commercial refrigeration is rapidly establishing itself as an alternative to HFCs, with up to 1200 commercial systems currently running in the 27 EU Member States, in addition to thousands of CO2 cascade systems.
It also expects the market share of equipment using natural refrigerants to increase substantially in the coming years.