Offering ideas and solutions to Mercabarna businesses to help them cut their energy costs. This was the goal of the Energy Efficiency Congress organised on 7 March by the food estate, via the Barcelona Food Cluster Association, and the Catalonia Energy Efficiency Cluster, and which drew around sixty attendees.
At the event, the Catalan government’s General Director of Industry, Antoni Maria Grau, emphasised the importance of energy efficiency “not only for the economic savings it represents, but also for the business dynamics and opportunities it creates”. Mercabarna managing director Josep Tejedo spoke of the growing awareness of this issue by both the food estate and its business representatives and explained the measures being taken to improve energy efficiency.

Savings on chilling food, ventilation systems, lighting…
The event was a chance for the 10 companies in the Energy Efficiency Cluster to present the different systems for cutting energy costs that they are already successfully applying in other food sector businesses. The cluster representatives demonstrated devices that measure energy consumption and which alone can allow a saving of up to 15%. They also presented systems to regulate cold chamber operation, which generate savings of up to 5%, and equipment that can cut a company's lighting bill by 40% to 60%.
As part of the event, representatives from Mercabarna and Assocome explained the actions they have taken to improve energy efficiency in the ground's facilities, as well as initiatives being studied by the Energy Committee, formed by the two organisations to cut down the energy bills of food estate companies.