New Burger King Restaurant Powered By Wind and Solar Energy
A new Burger King restaurant in Germany features wind, solar, lighting, heating and cooling systems that are expected to produce whopping cuts in energy use and costs. Read More
A new Burger King restaurant in Germany features wind, solar, lighting, heating and cooling systems that are expected to produce whopping cuts in energy use and costs.
The wind and solar power systems at the Burger King in Waghäusel, which was designed in collaboration with Wirsol Solar AG, supply one third of the restaurant’s electricity needs.
The systems are expected to reduce energy costs by about 45 percent and cut CO2 emissions by 120 metric tons annually, according to the restaurant company.
The more than 720 solar photovoltaic modules at the site can generate over 53,500 kWh of electricity per year, and the wind turbine, about 2,500, the firm said.
The new restaurant is an example of the company’s green vision for its locations, a global design initiative the firm calls Burger King 20/20.
The initiative is part of the firm’s corporate responsibility program, BK Positive Steps, and was unveiled with the “grand reopening” of a redesigned Burger King in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in October 2009.
By then the company had already incorporated its 20/20 design at 60 restaurants from Miami, where Burger King is based, to Shanghai. At the time, the company said it planned to roll out the design at 75 other sites by the end of 2010.
The restaurant at Waghäusel uses:
- An interior heat-recovery ventilation system to cool and heat the site. The system saves 73 percent of the energy that would be consumed for heating and cooling using conventional methods.
- Waste heat to generate hot water, saving 50 percent of the energy typically needed to heat water.
- Interior and exterior LEDs. The bulbs use 55 percent less energy that standard bulbs.
- A broiler that reduces gas consumption and related costs by 52 percent and electricity consumption and costs by 90 percent. The Duke Flexible Batch Broiler is already in place at Burger King restaurants in North America, and its installment at international sites is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.
The new restaurant in Germany also has a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station for hybrid cars and a rainwater reclamation system for landscape irrigation.
Images courtesy of Burger King.
